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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/littlesisterofwiplym 


''"  - ,  J .  >  m 


WILIFRED. 


THE    LITTLE    SISTER 
OF   WILIFRED 


BY 


A.   G.   PLYMPTON 


AUTHOR    OF    "  DEAR    DAUGHTER    DOROTHY,''   AND    "  BETTY, 
A    BUTTERFLY" 


JHusttateb  b?  the  3tutbor 


BOSTON 
ROBERTS  BROTHERS 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  A.  G.  Plympton. 


2Smbcrsitg  Press: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Page 

I.  The  Twin  Babies 11 

II.  WlLIFRED 26 

III.  The  Slavey 42 

IV.  A  Puzzling  Question 69 

V.  Contrasts 84 

VI.  A  Bold  Plan 113 

VII.  A  Princess  in  Disguise 124 

VIII.  A  Little  Interloper 148 

IX.  For  Peggy's  Sake 178 

X.  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well  .     .     .  200 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page 

PEGGY Frontispiece. 

WlLIFRED     , " 

"  Papa  !  Papa  !  "  she  cried,  looking  up  in- 
to his  Face  and  laughing 21 

Mrs.  Bagley 46 

bolander  and  peggy 63 

"What  do  you  want  here?"  he  asked     .       79 

The    Children     stood    perfectly    quiet, 

looking  gravely  at  each  other      .     .       95 
"  i  knew  i  could  think  of  a   plan,"  she 

SAID 115 

She  ran  into  the  road  screaming,  "  Papa  ! 

papa!"     .....     125 

"  Look  here,  Peggy,"  he  said,  "  I  believe 
you  have  been  meddling  with  my 
Papers" 139 

"  how  do  you    feel   now,    dear  ?  "   asked 

Mrs.  Moran,  anxiously 153 


io  List  of  Illustrations. 

Page 

Watching  for  Wilifred 175 

"  I  'm  not  Peggy.     You  must  n't  take  me 

to  Boarding  School" 191 

She   fell   down   at    Mrs.    Moran's  Side, 

and  hid  her  face  in  her  lap     .    .    .     203 


THE 


LITTLE  SISTER  OF  WILIFRED. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    TWIN    BABIES. 

WILIFRED  was  a  sprite  of  a  girl, 
so  blithe  and  fresh  and  whole- 
some, so  capricious  and  playful,  that  she 
reminded  one  of  nothing  so  much  as  a 
frolicsome  little  wave  sparkling  under 
the  sun  of  a  breezy  summer  afternoon. 
She  was  remarkably  pretty,  with  a  tan- 
gle of  red  gold  hair,  and  eyes  that  when 
she  was  a  good,  meek  child  were  a  soft 
and  beautiful  hazel,  but  on  occasions 
when  her  rather  peppery  temper  got  the 
better  of  her  became  quite  black. 


12      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Notwithstanding  this  fault  of  temper 
she  was  a  most  lovable  little  girl,  with  a 
warm,  generous  heart  which  would  melt 
in  a  moment  at  the  sight  of  another's 
distress,  and  she  could  never  be  happy 
again  until  she  had  made  some  plan  to 
relieve  it.  Having  a  daring  fancy  and 
a  venturesome  spirit,  these  plans  were 
often  very  ingenious  and  queer,  and 
were  never  relinquished  without  a  trial 
because  of  seeming  difficulties.  In 
short,  she  was  the  most  persistent  and 
determined  little  creature  that  was  ever 
born  into  the  perplexities  and  discour- 
agements of  this  good  old  world,  which 
is  ever  teaching  us  that  there  is  nothing 
worth  having  in  it  without  brave  and 
patient  effort. 

Wilifred  was  one  of  the  fortunate 
children  at  whose  christening  it  seemed 
all  the  good  fairies  were  present.     She 


The  Twin  Babies.  1 3 

was  the  idol  of  her  papa,  who,  being  a 
very  rich  man,  was  able  to  give  her 
every  advantage  and  pleasure.  He  was 
so  good  to  her  and  she  loved  him  so 
dearly  she  could  not  realize  that  she 
was  only  his  child  by  adoption,  and  Dr. 
Moran  himself  so  much  disliked  any 
mention  of  this  fact  that  it  was  entirely 
ignored  by  everybody. 

His  friends  said  that  he  was  prouder 
of  Wilifred's  beauty,  courage,  and  clev- 
erness than  of  his  own  valuable  scien- 
tific  discoveries. 

Mrs.  Moran  for  many  years  had  been 
in  delicate  health,  and  was  very  languid 
and  quiet.  She  liked  all  the  shades 
drawn  in  the  house,  and  did  not  very 
often  go  out  of  doors,  because  the  "  glare 
of  the  sun"  hurt  her  eyes.  Wherever 
she  went,  her  maid  followed  her  with  a 
cushion  and  an  armful  of  wraps.     She 


14     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

was  very  pretty  and  gentle,  and  with 
her  soft  eyes  and  cooing  voice  not  un- 
like a  lovely  white  dove.  The  Doctor 
and  Wilifred  were  very  proud  of  her. 
It  seemed  to  them  that  she  had  had 
every  disease  under  the  sun.  To  have 
had  so  many,  of  course,  she  had  been 
obliged  to  have  more  than  one  at  a 
time,  and  was,  as  Wilifred  once  grandly 
remarked,  a  martyr  to  a  complication. 

There  being  nothing  that  Wilifred 
disliked  so  much  as  darkened  rooms, 
she  did  not  spend  very  much  time  with 
her  mother,  but  was  the  constant  com- 
panion of  the  Doctor,  who  never  could 
see  any  reason  why  the  child  should  not 
go  wherever  he  went. 

The  Morans  were  great  travellers, 
going  from  climate  to  climate  in  search 
of  health  for  the  invalid ;  and  Wilifred 
at  eight  years  of  age  was  a  good  sailor, 


The  Twin  Babies.  15 

a  famous  pedestrian,  and  a  perfectly 
fearless  horsewoman.  To  see  the  little 
damsel  on  a  horse,  looking  so  bold  and 
so  radiant,  was  to  fall  in  love  with  her 
at  once. 

As  for  her  early  history,  she  had 
learned  it  in  part  from  her  old  nurse, 
who  had  been  promptly  discharged  for 
speaking  of  the  forbidden  subject ;  but 
this  was  so  long  ago,  and  the  subject 
having  never  again  been  alluded  to  in 
her  presence,  she  had  almost  forgotten  it. 

The  Doctor  flattered  himself  that  she 
had  entirely  forgotten  it,  and  that  there 
was  no  one  with  whom  she  ever  came  in 
contact,  except  her  mother  and  himself, 
who  remembered  how  and  when  he  had 
found  her,  and  no  solicitation  would  have 
drawn  from  him  a  description  of  the 
pretty  scene  of  the  occasion  of  their  first 
meeting,  which  he  so  well  remembered. 


1 6      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

This  happened  soon  after  he  and 
Mrs.  Moran  had  decided  to  adopt  a 
little  girl  to  bring  up  as  a  sister  to  their 
own  sturdy  lads.  The  Doctor  was  fond 
of  all  children ;  but  if  one  is  to  adopt  a 
child  it  is  as  well  to  select  one  to  whom 
Dame  Nature  has  been  kind,  and  given 
beauty  and  health  and  a  good  disposi- 
tion, these  being  advantages  that  all  the 
Doctor's  money  could  not  buy. 

One  day,  then,  several  years  before 
this  story  begins,  Dr.  Moran  received  a 
letter  informing  him  that,  if  he  would 
go  to  a  certain  home  for  friendless  chil- 
dren, he  would  find  just  such  a  child 
as  he  was  in  search  of. 

Mrs.  Moran  being  too  ill  at  that  time 
to  leave  the  house,  he  went  alone  to  this 
institution,  where  he  found  the  prettiest 
little  twin  sisters  imaginable.  They  had 
soft   hazel  eyes,  and   rings   of   red  gold 


The  Twin  Babies.  17 

hair  covered  their  heads,  curling  up 
from  the  sweetest  of  white  baby  necks. 
Their  mouths  were  like  rose-buds,  — 
that  is,  like  mouths  that  are  called 
rose-buds,  —  and  when  they  smiled  it 
gave  a  dimple  in  each  cheek.  Every- 
body agreed  that  they  were  remarkably 
pretty  babies,  and  everybody  always 
added,  that  they  looked  so  much  alike 
it  was  impossible  to  tell  one  from  the 
other. 

The  little  creatures  took  Dr.  Moran's 
heart  by  storm,  but  the  question  now 
was  which  of  the  two  to  choose,  for 
they  were  not  only  equally  pretty,  but 
one  was  just  as  strong,  just  as  bright, 
and  had  just  as  sweet  a  disposition  as 
the  other.  So  at  least  Mrs.  Purdy,  the 
matron,  said,  adding  that  it  seemed  a 
great  pity  they  should  ever  be  sepa- 
rated.    This    was    just   what   the   good 


1 8      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Doctor  himself  had  been  thinking,  as 
he  sat  watching  the  two  babies  playing 
so  prettily  together  on  the  floor. 

The  longer  he  watched  them,  the 
more  wicked  it  seemed,  and  he  declared 
that  before  deciding  he  would  consult 
Mrs.  Moran,  and  if  she  favored  the  plan 
he  would  take  both  children. 

Mrs.  Moran,  however,  was  distinctly 
of  the  opinion  that  the  second  baby 
would  be  a  superfluity  in  the  family. 

"  For  heaven's  sake,  Gilbert,"  she  said 
to  her  husband,  "  you  must  have  for- 
gotten how  loud  one  baby  by  itself  can 
scream.  Urged  on  by  competition,  it 
would  certainly  be  more  than  my  poor 
head  could  stand." 

"  But  these  are  healthy  babies,"  urged 
the  Doctor  eagerly,  "  and  they  never  cry. 
The  matron  told  me  so." 

At  which  remark  Mrs.  Moran  skepti- 


The  Twin  Babies.  19 

cally  replied,  that  she  had  seen  a  great 
many  babies,  but  she  had  never  seen  the 
variety  that  do  not  cry. 

"  And  you  shall  have  a  nurse  for 
each,"  the  Doctor  went  on.  "  I  wish  you 
had  seen  the  little  things  together,  and 
then  you  would  never  have  the  heart  to 
separate  them.  Our  two  boys  and 
the  two  girls  will  make  a  pretty  fam- 
ily. I  think  we  had  better  take  them 
both." 

"  Why  not  adopt  all  the  children  at 
the  home?  I  am  sure  that  would  be  a 
lovely  family,  and  large  enough  to  please 
even  you,"  laughed  his  wife.  And  she 
would  give  the  subject  no  more  serious 
consideration. 

Much  disappointed,  the  next  day  Dr. 
Moran  took  the  boys'  old  nurse  and 
drove  to  the  home.  He  sat  down  and 
earnestly  examined  the  two  little  crea- 


20     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

tures  as  they  stood  by  the  matron's  knee 
staring  at  him  in  true  baby  fashion. 

They  were  about  fourteen  months  old, 
could  speak  half  a  dozen  words,  and  had 
just  learned  to  walk  alone.  Presently, 
one  ot  the  babies,  having  apparently 
come  to  a  decision  sooner  than  the 
Doctor,  now  balanced  herself  on  her 
feet,  held  out  her  little  hands,  and  tot- 
tered across  the  floor  straight  into  his 
arms. 

"  Papa !  papa !  "  she  cried,  looking  up 
into  his  face  and  laughing. 

"  Since  I  can  have  but  one,  I  shall 
take  this  little  trot,"  the  Doctor  said, 
smiling  down  upon  the  baby's  upturned 
face.  "  She  seems  to  have  decided  the 
question  herself.  Yes,  I  will  take  this 
one. 

As  he  concluded,  he  looked  a  moment 
at   the    less    adventurous    baby.       The 


"  PAPA  !    PAPA  !  "     SHE    CRIED,    LOOKING    UP    INTO    HIS   FACE 
AND   LAUGHING. 


22      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

child,  as  if  in  dismay  at  her  sister's  bold- 
ness, had  buried  her  head  in  the  matron's 
lap,  and  was  watching  them  from  one 
uncovered  eye.  The  kind  soul  took  her 
up  on  her  lap  in  a  pitying  way,  which  led 
the  Doctor  to  say,  "  You  will  easily  find 
a  home  for  her  too.  They  are  wonder- 
fully pretty  children." 

"  It 's  not  always  easy  to  find  just  the 
right  place  for  'em,  Sir,"  she  answered, 
shaking  her  head.  "  I  should  n't  like  to 
give  up  this  pretty  little  thing  to  some 
one  who  would  make  a  servant  of  her. 
That 's  what  folks  that  come  here  for 
children  usually  want  of  'em." 

"  O  no,  —  that  would  be  a  pity,  —  I 
hope  it  won't  come  to  that,"  said  the 
Doctor  looking  regretfully  at  the  child. 
"  I  wish  I  could  have  taken  her  too,  but 
it 's  impossible." 

So,    the    matter    being    settled,    the 


The   Twin  Babies.  23 

chosen  baby  was  wrapped  up,  and  was 
just  about  to  be  carried  away  when  Mrs. 
Purdy  interposed.  She  must  have  been 
a  tender-hearted  woman,  having  seen  so 
many  ties  broken,  to  be  still  moved  to 
pity  at  the  sight. 

"  Just  let  me  have  her,  Dr.  Moran,  for 
a  minute.  It  aint  as  if  they  were  only 
just  common  sisters  :  they  are  twins,  you 
know,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  Lord  had  n't 
sent  the  two  into  the  world  together  for 
nothin'.  There  aint  such  a  pressin' 
need  of  more  folks  in  the  world  that  He 
should  have  sent  an  extra  one  along  just 
to  help  fill  up.  It  seems  as  if  he  meant 
'em  for  a  help  an'  comfort  to  each  other 
along  the  march." 

She  took  the  future  Wilifred  and  sat 
down  on  the  sofa  by  which  the  little 
sister  was  standing.  Ouite  unconscious 
of  the  sad  meaning  of  the  moment,  the 


24      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

children  being  placed  side  by  side,  looked 
at  each  other  with  their  wide  tranquil 
baby  eyes. 

"  Poor  little  sister !  "  the  matron  said 
to  Wilifred,  while  she  stroked  the  soft 
cheek  of  the  other  baby.  "  Kiss  her, 
darlin',  for  you  are  all  the  relation  she 
has,  an'  you  are  goin'  where  you  '11  never 
see  her  again.     Kiss  her." 

"  Poor  !  poor  !  "  echoed  Winifred, 
brightly,  imitating  with  her  own  the 
caressing  motion  of  the  matron's  hand. 

Then,  laughing  and  crowing,  she  was 
carried  away,  the  little  sister  shaking 
her  own  dimpled  hands,  pathetically 
ignorant  that  she  was  left  without  a  tie 
to  a  human  being  in  the  world. 

With  many  kisses  the  matron  took 
her  back  to  the  nursery.  "  It 's  a  dread- 
ful queer  world,  darlin',"  she  murmured. 
"  It  goes  easy  with  some    an'    terrible 


The  Twin  Babies.  25 

hard  with  others.     An'  you  are  a  poor 
little  waif  that  nobody's  wantin'." 

But  the  baby  was  not  dismayed  at  her 
prospects  in  life.  She  curled  herself 
down  on  the  matron's  shoulder,  and 
cooed  as  contentedly  as  if  she  had  been 
adopted  by  a  millionaire. 


26      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    II. 

WILIFRED. 

IT  was  in  the  spring  following  Wili- 
fred's  ninth  birthday  that  the  Morans 
returned  from  Italy  with  the  intention  of 
settling  down  upon  their  native  heath. 
They  had  visited  all  the  health  resorts 
that  had  ever  been  heard  of,  but  Mrs. 
Moran  was  still  very  delicate. 

"  Mamma  will  be  more  likely  to  find 
her  health  here  than  in  any  foreign 
country,"  said  Wilifred,  who  was  de- 
lighted to  be  in  America  again.  "  She 
lost  it  before  she  went  away,  and  I  think 
people  had  always  better  look  for  things 
where  they  lose  them." 


Wilifred.  2  7 

The  Doctor  bought  a  fine  old  place 
in,  or  rather  near,  his  native  town.  It 
was  a  pleasant  college  town,  which  may 
be  called  Bridgemont. 

"  We  shall  be  able  to  'predate  a  home 
after  knocking  about  so  long,"  Wili- 
fred remarked  when  her  father  told  her 
of  this  arrangement.  "  Won't  it  be  nice 
and  queer  to  stay  all  the  time  in  one 
climate,  and  not  have  Estelle  always 
packing  or  unpacking  our  things  ?  I  'm 
so  glad  it 's  a  country  place.  Is  it  the 
really,  truly  country,  papa,  where  there 
are  fields  with  cows  in  'em,  and  nice  old 
barns  and  haystacks,  and  lots  of  chick- 
ens and  pigs  and  horses  and  dogs  and 
things  ? " 

"Yes,  it's  the  genuine  country,  al- 
though I  might  not  have  described  it  in 
such  a  poetical  style,  my  dear,"  answered 
the  Doctor,  pulling  one  of  Wilifred's 
curls. 


28      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Of  course  you  would  n't,  you  poor 
prosy  papa!     But 

I  am  a  poet 

And  want  you  to  know  it, 

For,  say  what  you  please, 

You  never  can  tease 

Me." 

This  had  been  Wilifred's  earliest  po- 
etical effort.  As  it  had  not  been  ap- 
preciated as  poetry,  she  had  graciously 
allowed  it  to  serve  as  a  joke,  saying  phi- 
losophically, that  after  all  she  liked  jokes 
a  great  deal  better  than  she  did  poetry. 

"  Delhaven,"  her  papa  went  on,  "is  as 
beautiful  a  country  place  as  I  know  of 
in  America,  having  every  natural  advan- 
tage, ancestral  elms  and  all.  The  house 
in  itself  is  delightful,  and,  Will,  there  is 
the  prettiest  room  with  an  oriel  window, 
which  shall  be  yours,  my  darling." 

"Yes,  thank  you,  papa!"  said  Wili- 
fred. "  But  do  tell  me  about  the  stables. 
How  many  stalls  are  there  ? " 


Wilifred.  29 

"  All  we  shall  want,  —  ten  or  twelve,  I 
should  say,"  was  the  answer. 

"  If  there  are  so  many,  papa,  you 
might  let  me  have  one.  I  '11  exchange 
that  room  with  the  oriel  window  for  it." 

"  I  don't  think  the  little  brass  bed- 
stead I  bought  for  you  will  suit  the  style 
of  the  stall,"  the  Doctor  objected  gravely. 
He  adored  his  little  daughter,  but  he 
could  not  refrain  from  teasing  her. 

"  O  papa !  don't  joke,"  she  cried. 

"  Why  not  ?  I  thought  you  liked 
jokes." 

"  I  don't  feel  jokey  now,  papa.  I  'm 
awfully  serious  about  the  stall,  and  of 
course  nobody  thinks  of  sleeping  there. 
I  supposed  you  would  not  give  me  an 
empty  stall,  for  that  would  n't  be  a  very 
useful  present.  I  can  ride  just  as  well 
as  the  boys,  and  they  are  each  to  have  a 
horse." 


30      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Very  well ;  you  shall  have  a  horse 
too,  you  wheedling  little  monkey." 

"  And  a  dog.  I  never  could  have 
horses  and  dogs  because  we  were  al- 
ways travelling  about  so.  What 's  the 
good  of  settling  down,  if  I  cant  have 
a  dog  ? " 

"  None  at  all.  I  am  going  to  settle 
down  just  so  you  can  have  one." 

"  I  like  mastiffs,"  said  Wilifred,  pay- 
ing no  attention  to  this  jest,  "  they  are 
so  splendid  and  so  big.  Collies  are 
nice  too,  they  run  and  jump  so.  And 
there  are  those  awfully  'cute  little 
terriers  with  their  bright  eyes.  Every 
one  must  like  them.  And  pugs,  papa, 
the  dear  ugly  little  things  !  I  like  pugs 
and  setters  of  course,  and  hounds  and 
spaniels." 

"  And  you  would  like  a  few  of  each, 
I  suppose,"  laughed   Dr.  Moran,  taking 


Wilifred.  3 1 

the  cigar  from  his  lips  to  kiss  the  eager 
little  face  beside  him.  .  "  Well,  we  will 
have  some  dogs,  my  dear.  You  and 
Arthur  and  I  all  love  animals,  don't 
we?  Arthur  says  he  must  have  a 
pointer." 

"  Yes,  papa,  he  wants  it  for  hunting. 
I  don't  think  Arthur  is  very  fond  of 
animals;  he  just  likes  to  shoot  things. 
I  think  it 's  horrid  of  him  to  kill  the 
dear  little  birds,  and  I  hope  his  pointer 
won't  point.  But,  dear  me,  how  jolly 
it  will  be  to  have  a  horse !  You  wont 
buy  one  for  me  that 's  too  gentle,  will 
you  ?  for  you  know  I  like  to  ride  fast. 
And  you  know,  papa,  I  will  need  a 
habit,  for  I  had  so  outgrown  the  old 
one  that  mamma  left  it  in    Italy." 

"  A  habit  ?  Oh,  certainly.  Can't  you 
think  of  something  else  you  would 
like  ? " 


32      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

The  Doctor  spoke  in  jest,  but  he  had 
so  often  asked  a  similar  question  in 
earnest  that  the  little  girl  took  him  at 
his  word,  and  answered  promptly  : 

"  Why,  yes,  papa,  lots  of  things. 
Since  the  time  you  asked  me  and  I 
could  n't  think  of  anything  I  have  kept 
a  list." 

"  Dear  me !  was  there  ever  such 
a  time  ?  I  am  sure  I  don't  remem- 
ber it." 

"  I  do.  I  have  never  forgotten  it," 
said  Wilifred  pensively.  "  It  was  so 
stupid  of  me,  and  when  it  was  too  late 
I  did  think  of  something  that  I  wanted 
very  much.  But  what  I  am  going  to 
ask  for  now  is  a  phaeton,"  she  went  on 
brightly.  "  If  I  have  a  horse,  I  may  as 
well  have  a  phaeton,  and  perhaps  I  can 
coax  mamma  into  driving  with  me 
sometimes,  —  that  is,  when  the  weather 


Wilifred.  .    3  3 

is  just  right,  for  you  know  mamma  is 
very  particular  about  the  weather.'1 

"  Very  well,"  was  the  answer.  "  You 
shall  have  the  phaeton,  but  you  must 
remember  that  you  are  not  to  go  out 
alone  in  it,  for,  although  you  drive  very 
well,  you  are  yet  a  small  child.  And 
what  should  I  do  if  any  accident  were 
to  happen  to  you  ?  " 

From  the  fores^oino;  conversation  it 
may  be  seen  how  little  Will  was  in- 
dulged by  the  Doctor.  To  all  remon- 
strances he  would  reply  with  a  shrug, 
and  declare  there  never  was  a  child 
more  unselfish  than  she  was,  which 
was  a  proof  that  he  was  not  spoiling 
her. 

Wilifred  often    thought    that    of    the 

two  her  papa  was   really  the   least    bit 

fonder    of  her    than    her    mamma,    and 

the  truth  is,  that  in  the  fulness  of  her 

3 


34      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

health  and  spirits  Wilifred  sometimes 
tried  Mrs.  Moran  very  much,  and  it 
was  impossible  for  her  to  sympathize 
with  her  tastes  as  her  father  did.  Then, 
too,  although  Wilifred  was  very  sorry 
for  her  poor  delicate  mamma,  and  loved 
her  very  much,  she  could  not  realize 
how  a  trifling  noise  would  set  her 
nerves  aching  and  tingling,  and  how 
much  more  comfortable  she  was  with 
only  quiet  and  gentle  persons  around 
her. 

By  the  middle  of  May  the  Morans 
were  really  settled  at  Delhaven,  and 
Will  was  enchanted. 

Each  day  seemed  to  bring  with  it 
some  pleasant  surprise,  until  she  de- 
clared that  the  only  surprise  possible 
for  her  would  be  not  to  be  surprised 
at  all. 

At  first,  she  had  feared  that  the  new 


Wilifred.  35 

home  was  not  in  what  she  called  the 
"  real  country,  but  in  a  citified  country 
place,  where  things  would  be  trim  and 
stylish."  Wilifred  had  no  taste  for 
suburbs.  But  as  they  drove  from  the 
station  to  Delhaven  it  was  over  a  genu- 
ine old  country  road  lying  among  the 
varied  charms  of  fertile  green  fields, 
woods,  and  scrubby  pastures.  The 
scrubbier  they  were,  the  better  they 
pleased  Wilifred. 

The  new  house  pleased  her  too, 
having  been  built  in  a  generous  and 
comfortable  style,  with  many  city  con- 
veniences, of  which,  after  all,  she  never 
complained.  The  coveted  stall  once 
hers,  she  had  no  objection  to  the  pretty 
room  with  its  graceful  furnishings,  — 
with  its  shelves  of  books  and  dainty 
toilet  articles. 

The   day   this   room    was    first    occu- 


36      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

pied,  the  stable  too  had  an  inmate,  — 
a  beautiful  little  chestnut  mare,  which 
oddly  enough  received  from  its  mistress 
the  name  of  Black   Beauty. 

"  I  don't  see  why  not,"  Wilifred  said, 
when  her  brother  Arthur  objected  to 
this.  "  I  knew  a  girl  once  who  was 
named  Lily,  and  she  was  just  as  dark 
as  an  Indian.  You  have  named  your 
horse  Colonel,  but  he  is  no  more  a 
colonel  than  my  horse  is  black." 

And  Arthur  at  once  confessed  that 
Wilifred,  as  usual,  had  made  her 
point. 

The  Doctor  bought  two  very  fine 
dogs,  —  a  mastiff  and  a  Gordon  setter. 
Then  a  collie  was  offered  to  him,  which 
was  much  too  handsome  an  animal  to 
be  refused.  Arthur  also  had  his  pointer. 
But  to  whomsoever  the  dogs  belonged, 
they  were  all  of  them  devoted  to  Wili- 


Will f red.  3  7 

fred.  One  clay  a  bright  little  Scotch 
terrier  followed  the  phaeton  from  town* 
and,  as  its  master  could  never  be  found, 
resided  permanently  at  the  Morans  un- 
der the  title  of  Tramp. 

Among  the  various  importations  con- 
stantly coming  to  Delhaven  there  was 
One  that  did  not  please  the  little  girl 
overmuch.  This  was  a  rather  formal 
but  highly  accomplished  lady  as  gover- 
ness to   Miss  Wilifred. 

It  is  a  sad  truth  that  this  small  per- 
sonage would  have  been  glad  to  post- 
pone her  education  for  an  indefinite 
period.  When  she  thought  of  this  pro- 
cess, eventually  to  be  passed  through, 
she  felt  deeply  the  tenderness  of  her 
own  age.  It  seemed  to  her  a  great 
pity  that  one  cannot  acquire  knowl- 
edge as  easily  as  one's  physical  growth. 
However,  the  governess  having  already 


38      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

arrived,  it  was  necessary  to  resign  her- 
self to  the  inevitable,  —  governesses,  like 
horses  and  dogs,  being  as  she  supposed 
one  of  the  results  of  settling  down. 

"  There  seems  to  be  something  bad 
that  comes  with  everything  that 's  good," 
said  this  small  philosopher,  as  she 
watched  Miss  Weston's  trunks  being 
carried  into  the  house.  "  When  it 's 
summer  there  must  be  mosquitos,  but 
I  'd  rather  have  summer  come  in  spite 
of  the  mosquitos,  and  I  'm  glad  we  've 
settled  down,  even  though  I  have  to 
have  a  governess.  To  be  sure  it  is  n't 
quite  the  same  thing,  because  you  can 
put  up  nets  and  keep  the  mosquitos 
out,  or  if  they  get  in  you  can  kill 
'em ;  but  you  have  to  be  polite  to  a 
governess." 

Wilifred  always  was  very  polite  to 
her  governess,  and   they   became  good 


Vli/ifi'ed.  39 

friends,  although  it  is  true,  as  Wilifred 
said,  they  were  "  not  exactly  the  same 
kind." 

"  She  is  very  nice,  and  I  like  her,  but 
she  's  queer,"  Wilifred  explained.  "  She 
thinks  it  's  coarse  to  have  so  many 
dogs,  and  she  always  screams  when  a 
horse  gets  up  on  his  hind  legs,  no 
matter  whether  anybody  is  hurt  or 
not." 

Everything  was  going  on  smoothly  in 
the  Moran  family,  when  one  day  the 
boys  came  from  the  town  with  an  aston- 
ishing story  of  a  little  girl  they  had 
seen  there  who  was  the  very  image  of 
Wilifred. 

"  It  is  the  most  remarkable  likeness 
you  ever  saw,  Sir,"  said  Randolph, 
the  elder  lad,  to  his  father.  "  I  never 
saw  anything  like  it  even  between  sis- 
ters." 


4-0      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Nonsense  !  nonsense  !  "  interrupted 
the  Doctor,  rather  crossly.  "  You  have 
seen  another  child  with  the  same  col- 
ored hair  and  eyes.  There  are  plenty 
of  children  of  Wilifred's  complexion. 
You  would  laugh  at  yourself  if  you  were 
to  see  them  together." 

"  If  they  were  dressed  alike,  I  don't 
believe  we  could  tell  one  from  the 
other,"  persisted  Arthur.  "  I  want 
you    to    see    her,    that 's    all." 

But  the  Doctor  with  a  gesture  dis- 
missed the  subject.  No  doubt  he  would 
have  been  glad  if  the  little  girl  also 
could   be  so  easily  disposed   of. 

When  Wilifred,  who  had  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  boys'  story,  left  the 
room,  he  reverted  to  it,  but  merely  to 
beg  them  never  to  mention  this  child 
again. 

In  the  afternoon,  however,  when   he 


Wilifred.  4 1 

went  to  the  town,  he  had  curiosity 
enough  to  step  into  the  lodging-house 
called  Bagley's,  where  he  had  been 
given  to  understand  the  little  girl  could 
be  seen. 


42      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    "  SLAVEY."' 

IT  was  a  long  time  after  Wilifred 
had  been  chosen  by  Dr.  Moran 
for  his  future  daughter  before  a  home 
was  found  for  her  twin  sister. 

While  one  little  girl  became  the 
petted  child  of  this  rich  man,  the  other 
for  some  years  was  only  one  of  twenty 
little  orphans  who  owed  their  living  to 
charity.  One  wore  pretty  clothes,  had 
many  toys,  and  was  taken  from  one 
country  to  another,  seeing  what  is  most 
beautiful  and  interesting  in  the  world. 
The  other  wore  the  plain  uniform  of 
the  asylum,  had  no  toys  to  speak  of, 
and  her  pretty  eyes  had  hardly  looked 
beyond  the  bare  walls  of  the  ugly  insti- 


The  Slavey.  43 

tution  building.  More  important  than 
all,  one  child  was  surrounded  by  the 
love  of  her  adopted  parents,  while  the 
other  grew  up  with  only  an  occasional 
smile  or  kind  word  from  the  matron, 
who  of  all  people  should  not  be  blamed, 
for  without  defrauding  the  nineteen 
other  children  in  her  care,  how  could 
she  give  any  one  of  them  more  than 
the  twentieth  part   of  her  love  ? 

The  child  reached  her  second  year, 
and,  no  one  coming  forward  to  adopt 
her,  she  was  christened  by  the  name  of 
her  kind  friend,  the  matron,  Margaret 
Purdy. 

At  six  years  of  age  little  Margaret  — 
called  Peggy  —  started  out  in  the  world 
for  herself.  She  was  oh  so  brave  and 
so  happy  about  it !  for  she  seemed  to 
fancy  that  this  step  was  a  promotion  in 
life,  and   she   did  n't  in   the  least  know 


44      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred, 

what  the  world  was  like.  How  could 
she,  being  only  six  years  old,  and  never 
having  seen  anything  of  it  except  that 
tiny  section  called  the  home  ? 

This  little  Peggy  had  a  remarkably 
lovely  face,  an  active  mind,  a  patient 
spirit,  and  a  healthy  body.  She  was  to 
start  in  life  as  a  servant  in  the  house  of 
a  livery  stable  keeper,  whose  wife  took 
lodgers,  which  is  not,  on  the  whole,  a 
very  elevated  position  in  the  world. 

The  place  was  not  such  a  one  as  her 
friends  at  the  asylum  had  wished  for 
her ;  but  she  was  getting  on  in  years, 
at  least  as  an  inmate  of  that  particular 
institution,  where  the  children  rarely 
remained  after  the  asre  of  five.  More- 
over,  it  was  promised  that  she  should 
go  to  school,  and  be  decently  brought 
up ;  and  who  could  know  that  these 
promises   were  not  to  be  fulfilled  ? 


The  Slavey.  45 

So  one  day  little  Margaret,  smiling 
and  glad,  kissed  the  friends  of  her  baby- 
hood, and  courageously  started  forth 
with  her  tiny  hand  in  that  of  a  strange 
woman's,  for  the  lodging-house  known 
in  Bridgemont  as  Bagley's. 

Here  in  spite  of  her  tender  years,  and 
the  stipulation  that  she  was  to  go  to 
school,  Peggy  was  put  immediately  to 
work.  Al1  day  she  was  at  the  beck  and 
call  of  a  dozen  people,  running  here  and 
there  for  them,  fetching  this  and  that, 
earning  the  name,  by  which  Mr.  Bagley 
sometimes  called  her,  of  little  Miss  Step- 
and-fetch-it. 

The  lodgers  were  nearly  all  colle- 
gians. If  they  wished  for  anything, 
they  had  a  habit  of  coming  out  into  the 
hall  and  calling  loudly  for  "  Slavey," 
until  the  quick  patter  of  little  feet  an- 
swered  the    summons.     There  was   no 


46      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

one   to   think  that   perhaps    Peggy   ran 
altogether  more  than  was  good  for  her. 
Mrs.  Bagley  was  an  ignorant  woman, 
with   a  great   many  cares  and   a   sharp 


MRS.    BAGLEY. 


tongue.  She  was  stout,  with  red  hair, 
snapping  black  eyes,  and,  as  it  seemed 
at  a  first  glance,  a  great  many  chins. 
Her  head  hune  back  on  her  shoulders 


The  Slavey.  47 

and  bobbed  as  she  walked,  in  a  way 
Peggy  unconsciously  imitated,  to  the 
great  entertainment  of  the  lodgers.  As 
one  may  imagine,  in  such  a  house  there 
was  plenty  of  work  to  be  done.  When 
Mrs.  Bagley  was  at  work  she  always 
scolded,  which  was  n't  pleasant  for  the 
family,  but,  like  the  noise  of  a  machine, 
had  to  be  borne.  Sometimes  when  she 
left  off  work  she  forgot  to  leave  off 
scolding. 

Mr.  Bagley  said  he  thought  perhaps 
it  rested  her,  but  it  did  n't  rest  other 
people,  and  he  was  going  to  put  his  foot 
down  and  stop  it.  Peggy  used  to  keep 
her  eye  on  Mr.  Bagley's  feet,  hoping 
that  some  time  he  would  suddenly  do 
as  he  threatened,  and  put  one  of  them 
down.  There  was  so  much  of  it  that 
she  thought  it  ought  to  do  some  g-ood, 
but  when  he  put  them  down  it  was  al- 


48      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

« 

ways  to  skip  out  of  the  way  as  fast  as  he 
could.  It  was  more  prudent,  after  all, 
to  retreat  to  the  stable,  but  of  course 
Peggy  could  n't  retreat  to  the  stable, 
so  she  bore  more  than  her  share  of  the 
scoldings. 

If  the  lodgers  were  unreasonable,  if 
she  were  cheated  by  the  butcher,  if  it 
rained  on  a  washing-day,  Mrs.  Bagley 
scolded  Peggy.  She  scolded  her  be- 
cause she  herself  was  so  stout,  and  be- 
cause Peggy  was  so  very  long  in  grow- 
ing up.  Peggy  felt  her  guilt  in  these 
matters  very  deeply. 

She  was  such  a  loving  little  soul,  and 
was  so  very  lonely,  that  with  the  least 
encouragement  she  would  have  loved 
this  cross  Mrs.  Bagley  with  all  her 
heart.  Mrs.  Bagley-  never  admitted 
that  she  was  cross,  but  she  sometimes 
confessed  to  being  roused.     And  Peggy 


The  Slavey.  49 

always  spoke  of  her  mistress's  temper 
in  the  same  delicate  way.  Although 
Mrs.  Bagley  was  generally  cross,  she 
was  sometimes  not  so  cross  as  at  others, 
and  once  she  actually  patted  Peggy's 
head,  and  declared  that,  bad  as  she  was 
she  might  be  worse. 

The  poor  child  had  been  overjoyed 
at  this  not  very  extravagant  praise.  She 
pressed  up  to  Mrs.  Bagley's  side,  and 
looked  with  her  great  velvety  eyes  into 
the  little  beady  ones  ;  and  there  is  no 
knowing:  what  she  nwht  have  said  if  — 
some  domestic  mishap  occurring  at  that 
moment  —  she  had  not  been  pushed 
crossly  aside.  To  make  love  to  Mrs. 
Bagley  was  certainly  very  discouraging 
business. 

The  world  is  full  of  kind-hearted  peo- 
ple, and    it  would    be    strange  if    none 
such    crossed     Peggy's    path.       In    the 
4 


50     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

course  of  time  a  good-natured  young 
man  came  to  Bagley's,  and  generously 
permitted  Peggy  to  make  an  idol  of 
him. 

This  Mr.  Bolander  at  once  discovered 
that  the  child  was  working  harder  than 
she  should,  and  declared  that,  for  his 
part,  he  did  n't  think  a  fellow  who  would 
let  a  little  q-irl  wear  herself  out  to  wait 
on  him  was  much  of  a  gentleman.  He 
said  this  so  loudly  and  so  often  that  at 
last  it  reached  the  ears  of  a  certain  Mr. 
Fullerton,  who  had  the  next  room  to  his, 
and  who  was  constantly  calling  upon 
Peggy;  and  a  terrible  quarrel  was  the 
result  of  it.  There  were,  no  doubt, 
other  reasons  for  the  quarrel  unknown 
to  her,  but  at  all  events  this  speech  was 
the  beginning  of  it,  and  Peggy,  who  was 
a  timid  little  creature,  was  always  trying 
to  prevent  a  collision  between  the  two 


The  Slavey.  51 

men,  and  pathetically  imploring  Bolan- 
der  not  to  fight  a  duel  for  her  sake. 
That  any  human  being  should  speak  a 
word  in  her  behalf  was  a  wonderful 
thing  to  Peggy,  and  her  gratitude  knew 
no  bounds. 

Peggy's  champion  was  a  small  man, 
with  a  boyish  face  and  a  gentle  voice. 
His  brown  hair  curled  lightly  all  over 
his  head  and  looked,  Peggy  admiringly 
thought,  like  a  beautiful  French  doll's. 
He  had  pink  cheeks,  gray  eyes,  and  a 
pair  of  ears  that  were  certainly  too  large 
for  beauty  and  projected  very  far  from 
his  head.  These  ears,  together  with  a 
budding  mustache  that  Peggy  unkindly 
called  his  third  eyebrow,  prevented  the 
likeness  to  the  French  doll  being  very 
pronounced.  Bolander's  allowance  was 
small,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  cut  down 
his    expenses    to    the    smallest    possible 


52      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

sum,  and  he  wore  coats  that  were  very 
shiny,  and  trousers  dreadfully  baggy  at 
the  knee.  In  short,  as  he  often  said  as 
he  looked  at  himself  in  the  little  cracked 
mirror  his  landlady  furnished,  he  had  n't 
any  sort  of  style.  He  was  what  the 
college  boys  call  a  dig,  and  had  no  time 
to  make  himself  popular  with  anybody 
but  the  Slavey. 

There  were  not  many  ways  by  which 
Peggy  could  show  her  gratitude,  but  one 
may  be  sure  that  Jack  Bolander's  match- 
box was  always  filled,  that  his  room  — 
one  of  Bagley's  poorest  —  was  carefully 
dusted,  and  the  least  worn  of  the  towels 
put  on  his  stand.  Those  that  were 
especially  thin  and  miserable  usually 
found  their  way  to  Mr.  Fullerton's  room, 
who  in  consequence  was  always  grum- 
bling about  boarding-house  towels. 
Peggy  always  dreaded  going  into  Mr. 


The  Slavey.  53 

Fullerton's  room,  for,  beside  cordially 
disliking  that  young  gentleman  himself, 
he  kept  there  two  little  dogs  who,  when 
she  opened  the  door,  flew  out  and 
snapped  at  her.  If  the  dogs  escaped 
she  was  obliged  to  fetch  them  back,  — 
Mrs.  Bagley  not  allowing  them  in  any 
other  part  of  the  house,  —  and  Peggy 
was  dreadfully  afraid  of  dogs. 

It  was  a  very  large  house  the  child 
often  thought  as  she  ran  from  one  end 
of  it  to  the  other,  and  there  were  many 
rooms ;  but,  oddly  enough,  there  was  no 
room  for  Peggy  herself,  who  therefore 
slept  in  the  attic  in  a  sort  of  closet 
lighted  by  a  skylight. 

When  she  lay  on  her  bed  she  could 
see  through  the  skylight  on  some  nights 
a  particularly  bright  star,  which  with  a 
little  girl's  liking  for  ownership  she 
called  her  star.     She  thought  it  must  be 


54      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

the  one  Mrs.  Bagley  meant  when  she 
told  her  she  might  thank  her  lucky  star 
that  she  had  been  taken  away  from 
that  horrid  home  into  a  respectable 
family.  Peggy  was  very  grateful  that 
she  had  a  lucky  star  at  all,  and  she 
hoped  it  would  help  her  to  become  good 
and  wise  and  rich.  It  is  really  a  pity 
to  add  the  third  adjective,  as  perhaps 
Peggy's  ambition  would  seem  nobler 
without  it,  but  as  the  wish  of  a  little 
girl  who  slept  in  a  closet  it  is  not  after 
all  to  be  wondered  at. 

The  closet  was  bitter  cold  in  winter, 
and  hot  and  stifling  in  summer,  but  was 
very  nice  in  spring  and  fall,  Peggy  said, 
for  she  was  a  patient  little  thing  who 
never  nursed  her  grievances.  She  was 
always  sorry  that  after  her  long  day's 
work,  when  she  had  the  opportunity 
of  quietly  thinking  of  all   the  pleasant 


The  Slavey.  55 

things  her  lucky  star  would  bring  her, 
she  should  always  fall  asleep ;  but  in 
reality  this  was  the  very  luckiest  thing 
that  could  possibly  happen  to  a  tired 
little  girl  who  was  a  "slavey." 

"  Mr.  Bolander,"  said  Peggy  one  after- 
noon when  she  had  come  into  his  room 
with  the  towels  and  stopped  for  a  few 
moments'  chat  with  her  hero,  "  did  you 
ever  hear  of  a  self-made  woman  ?  " 

"  A  self-made  woman.  What  do  you 
mean,  chicken  ?  " 

"Why,  I  heard  Professor  Whitney 
talking  about  a  very  celebrated  man, 
and  he  said  he  was  a  self-made  man.  He 
never  had  any  advantages,  the  Professor 
said,  and  no  money,  no  one  to  help  him, 
and  he  had  to  do  everything-  for  himself. 
And  now  he  is  very  celebrated.  Could 
a  woman  make  herself  ?  " 

"  Why  yes,  certainly,"  said    Mr.    Bo- 


56      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

'•  Well,  then,  that 's  what  I  mean  to 
do.  Do  you  know  that,  although  I  'm 
quite  willing  to  be  a  slavey  just  for 
now,"  Peggy  said  with  a  smile,  "  I  don't 
want  to  be  one  always.  I  would  n't  tell 
Mrs.  Bagley  this,  because  she  might 
think   I  am   ungrateful." 

"  I  should  think  so,"  grunted  Bolan- 
der,  scowling,  as  he  always  did  when 
his  landlady  was  mentioned. 

"  Yes,  I  '11  be  a  self-made  woman," 
Peggy  went  on.  She  was  afraid  of 
almost  every  one,  but  not  of  Jack  Bolan- 
der,  —  not  even  when  he  scowled.  "  Do 
you  think  it  will  be  very  difficult  ?  I 
suppose  it 's  easier  to  have  some  one  else 
make  you  than  to  make  yourself." 

"  To  be  self-made  means  an  awful 
grind,  Peg."  said  her  friend  in  such  a 
way  that  she  broke  out,  — 

"  Why,  you  mean  to  be  self-made  too ! 


The  Slavey.  57 

Well,  I  know  you  will  come  out  all  right. 
There  's  no  trouble  about  you,  who  are 
so  awfully  clever.  I  wonder  what  I  can 
be  ?  " 

"What  do  you  want  to  be,  dear?" 
asked  the  young  man  very  gently,  as  he 
lifted  the  poor  little  thing  on  his  knee. 
"  There  was  once  a  poor  washerwoman 
who  became  the  Empress  of  Russia." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  want  to  be  the  Empress 
of  Russia,"  said  Peggy,  rather  dolefully. 
"  I  've  never  been  an  empress  yet,  and  I 
don't  know  as  I  should  like  it.  I  don't 
know  how  to  speak  Russian,  and  it  \s  so 
far  away  you  would  never  get  to  see  me." 

"  Well,  you  are  not  obliged  against 
your  will  to  be  the  Empress  of  Russia," 
Bolander  reminded  her,  "  and  there  are 
lots  of  other  things.  For  instance,  you 
might  be  a  prima  donna  and  tra  la  la 
yourself  into  a  fortune.      How  does  that 


58      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

strike  you?  I  shall  go  and  fling  boun- 
cing bouquets  at  Mademoiselle  Peggi- 
ana  Purdioso." 

"  I  am  afraid  I  could  n't  be  that,"  said 
Peggy,  laughing.  "  I  can't  sing  worth 
a  cent,  Mrs.  Bagley  says,  and  she  ought 
to  know,  for  she  sings  beautifully  her- 
self.    Did  n't  you  ever  hear  her  sing, 

'  Are  we  almost  there?  are  we  almost  there  ?' 

It 's  the  song  of  a  girl  that 's  dying,  and 
she  plays  a  lovely  accompaniment  on 
the  piano." 

"  Who,  the  girl  that 's  dying  ?  I 
should  think  she  would  be  too  weak." 

"  No,  Mrs.  Bagley,  of  course.  They 
are  taking  her  home  to  die,  you  know. 
It  goes  like  this." 

Peggy  straightened  herself  at  the 
table,  drew  in  her  chin  with  a  view  to 
making  it  double,  and,  casting  her  eyes 


The  Slavey.  59 

toward  the  ceiling,  began  to  play  an 
imaginary  tune  on  an  imaginary  piano. 
Then  in  a  very  deep  voice  she  sang  : 

"  Are  we  almost  there  ?  are  we  almost  there  ? 
Said  the  dying  girl  to  her  mother  fair." 

"  It  s  lovely,  but  I  've  forgotten  the 
rest.  It  always  makes  me  want  to 
cry. 

"So  it  does  me,  —  just  howl,"  said 
Bolander.  "  Yes,  I  've  seen  her  do  it. 
Perhaps  you  could  do  something  in  the 
burlesque  business.  I  did  n't  know  be- 
fore you  had  a  talent  for  that  sort  of 
thing,  but  on  the  whole  I  don't  believe 
that  would  suit  you.  You  are  going  to 
be  one  of  those  dovey  kind  of  women 
that  don't  feel  at  home  in  a  crowd. 
The  soft-eyed  kind,  with  hair  brought 
down  like  that,"  he  said,  laughing,  as  he 
tried  to  flatten  Peggy's  curls  down  on 
either  side  of  her  pretty  forehead,  "  and 


60     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

I  must  try  and  think  of  some  genteel 
thing  you  can  do  at  home." 

"  I  don't  know  how  to  do  anything 
but  to  sweep  and  dust,  and  to  wait  on 
people,"  said  Peggy,  rather  sadly. 

"  You  certainly  are  sufficiently  prac. 
tised  in  that  last  art ;  but  though  it  re- 
quires the  patience  of  a  saint,  it  never 
leads  to  glory." 

"  I  don't  care  for  glory,  I  want  to  be 
rich.  You  are  making  fun  of  me,  Mr. 
Bolander,  'cause  you  know  I  could  n't 
be  any  of  the  fine  things  you  say.  But 
you  know  one  might  be  different  from 
me  and  yet  not  be  an  empress,  or  any  of 
those  other  kind  of  ladies  you  spoke  of." 

"  Yes,  so  you  might,"  admitted  Bo- 
lander, stroking  the  rough  little  hand  of 
the  slavey. 

"  There  's  Mrs.  Bagley.  She  is  n't  an 
empress,  but  she  is  a  great  deal  better 


The  Slavey.  61 

off  than  I  am,"  said  Peggy.  "  But 
then  I  want  to  be  different  from  Mrs. 
Bagley." 

"  She  is  n't  my  ideal  either,  Peggy ; 
but  we  are  an  ambitious  lot." 

"  Mr.  Brewer,  who  lives  in  the  hand- 
some house  on  the  corner,"  went  on 
Peggy,  paying  no  attention  to  this  play- 
ful sarcasm,  "  made  all  his  money,  Mr. 
Bagley  says,  by  inventing  an  egg-beater. 
Just  an  egg-beater !  Mrs.  Bagley 
bought  one  the  other  day,  so  as  to  be 
neighborly,  I  suppose,  and  I  have  used 
it.  It  makes  your  arm  ache  dreadfully, 
but  he  got  rich  by  it  all  the  same. 
Then  there  was  the  man  that  invented 
rubber  for  the  end  of  pencils.  Mr. 
Bagley  said  he  made  heaps  of  money, 
and  I  Ve  made  up  my  mind  that  the 
best  thing  for  me  to  do  is  to  invent 
something,  —  i  don't  know  what  exactly. 


62      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

The  only  thing  I  have  thought  of  yet 
is  a  rubber  for  the  other  end  of  the 
pencil." 

"  That 's  a  strikingly  original  idea," 
laughed  Mr.  Bolander.  Then  he  looked 
at  her  again,  and  his  boyish  eyes  filled 
with  tears  as  he  thought  of  her  help- 
lessness. He  put  her  down  on  the 
floor,  and,  walking  up  and  down,  he 
said  to  himself :  "  The  poor  little  mite  ! 
If  ever  I  succeed,  if  ever  I  'm  able  to 
do  more  than  drag  my  miserable  self 
along,   I  '11  help  this  poor  chicken." 

"  Peggy,"  he  asked,  suddenly  sitting 
down  again,  "  do  you  know  the  multi- 
plication table  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Peggy,  sadly,  "  I  don't." 
"  Do  you  know  how  to  read,  dear  ?  " 
"  Not  much,  Mr.  Bolander." 
"  Have  you  ever  been  to  school  ?  " 
"  Yes,  I  went  a  week  once  all  at  one 


The  Slavey. 


63 


time.     I  ought  to  have  learned  to  read 
then,  when   I  had  such  a  good  chance. 


BOLANDER    AND    PEGGY 


And  beside  that  I  've  been  to  school  on 
extra  days  now  and  then,  but  usually 
there  has  been  too  much  to  do  at  home. 


64      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred* 

There  is  no  time  for  anything,  you 
know,  if  you  take  lodgers,  Mr.  Bo- 
lander,"  added  Peggy,  probably  quoting 
Mrs.  Bagley.  "  It 's  work  from  Monday 
till  Saturday,  and  even  the  blessed  Sab- 
bath is  no  day  of  rest  for  me." 

"  So  it  isn't;  and  a  great  shame,  too, 
you  poor  abused  child  !  " 

"  O  no,  I  am  not  abused.  Mrs.  Bag- 
ley  is  very  kind,  you  know,  to  give 
me  a  home  and  all  my  clothes,"  said 
Peggy,  looking  down  gratefully  at  the 
graceless  brown  frock  and  patched  pin- 
afore she  wore.  "  She  says  it  costs  a 
fortune  to  keep  me  in  shoes,  and  she 
can't  think  how  I  wear  them  out  so 
fast." 

"  Can't  she  ?  "  growled  Bolander. 
"  Well,  you  tell  her  that,  if  she  did  n't 
keep  you  running  all  day  long,  your 
shoes  would  n't  cost  her  so  much." 


The  Slavey.  .       65 

"  I  don't  think  she  would  like  it  if  I 
were  to  tell  her  that.  It  would  sound 
as  if  I  were  complaining,  you  know,  and 
I  don't  mean  to  complain.  What 's  the 
use  when  I  'm  going  to  invent  some- 
thing, and  be  rich  enough  to  have 
what  I  like  by  and  by,"  said  Peggy, 
cheerfully. 

"  What  I  would  do  if  I  were  in  your 
place,  Peg,  would  be  to  learn  the  multi- 
plication table,  to  read  well,  and  to  write 
a  good  plain  hand,"  advised  Bolander. 

"  But,  you  know,"  suggested  Peggy, 
gently,  "  I  have  n't  very  much  time,  and 
beside  I  'm  afraid  I  should  n't  know 
how  to  begin.  I  'm  'most  too  stupid  to 
learn  such  hard  things  all  by  myself, 
but  if  you  think  I  could,  I  might  try.  I 
suppose  if  I  'm  to  be  self-made,  I  ought 
to  do  it  alone." 

Fortunately,   Mr.     Bolander    did    not 

5 


66      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

think  she  need  push  things  to  this  ex- 
treme. His  intention  was  to  persuade 
Mrs.  Bagley  to  let  the  child  come  to 
him  for  an  hour's  instruction  each 
afternoon. 

"  That 's  what  it  is  to  have  a  lucky 
star,"  said  Peggy,  when  this  plan  was 
explained  to  her.  "  But  you  know  you 
study  yourself  in  the  afternoon,  and 
Mrs.  Bagley  —  she  would  n't  feel  that 
she  could  spare  me." 

Peggy  never  knew  what  arts  Mr.  Bo- 
lander  practised  upon  Mrs.  Bagley,  but 
at  a  certain  hour  each  afternoon  she 
was  released  from  work  with  the  gra- 
cious remark,  "  Now  scoot.  If  those  or- 
phan asylum  folks  knew  of  the  advan- 
tages I  'm  giving  you  with  a  private 
tooter,  like  the  child  of  a  dook,  I  should 
think  they  might  be  satisfied." 

So   Peggy  would  joyfully  fling  down 


The  Slavey.  67 

her  dish-towel  or  her  broom,  as  the  case 
might  be,  and  skip  upstairs  to  more 
congenial  tasks. 

The  story  got  abroad  that  Bolander 
was  teaching  trigonometry  to  the  slavey, 
and  he  was  ridiculed  unmercifully  for  a 
simple  act  of  kindness,  but  no  amount 
of  ridicule  could  alter  his  purpose. 

"  I  may  be  deficient  in  humor,"  he 
would  say,  "  but  I  can't  see  anything 
so  funny  in  helping  a  little  girl  who 
has  the  good  sense  to  care  for  an  educa- 
tion." 

Sometimes  their  whole  hour  would  be 
wasted  by  these  frolicsome  young  gen- 
tlemen, who  would  beat  a  tattoo  on  the 
door  until  Peggy's  little  head  whirled, 
and  Mr.  Bolander  danced  about  the 
room    in    helpless    anger. 

Once  a  number  of  them,  each  wearing 
a  checked  pinafore  and  carrying  a  book 


68     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

under  his  arm,  followed  her  into  the 
room,  and  recited  in  chorus,  "  Mary  had 
a  little  lamb."  They  looked  so  absurd, 
that  Peggy  could  not  help  laughing; 
but  Mr.  Bolander  jumped  up  in  a  great 
rage  and  burst  out,  in  a  tone  that  was 
meant  to  be  very  dignified,  "  Gentlemen, 
this  no  longer  ceases  to  be  funny." 

A  speech  which  was  followed  by  such 
shouts  of  laughter  that  it  was  some  time 
before  he  could  add,  pointing  to  dis- 
tressed little  Peggy,  "  If  you  must  have 
diversion,  don't  let  it  be  at  the  expense 
of  a  friendless  little  thing  like  that." 

Perhaps  the  young  men  realized  the 
meanness  of  their  fun,  for  one  by  one 
they  departed,  leaving  Peggy  and  Bo- 
lander masters  of  the   field. 


A  Puzzling  Question,.  69 


CHAPTER    IV. 

A    PUZZLING    QUESTION. 

IT  is  wonderful  how  far  a  little  girl's 
education  can  progress  with  only 
an  hour  a  day  for  study.  At  the  end  of 
one  year  Peggy  had  some  knowledge  of 
the  three  R's.  The  truth  is,  that  beside 
having  a  natural  love  of  books,  the  poor 
child  was  secretly  trying  to  "  catch  up 
with  Mr.  Bolander."  Her  chief  ambi- 
tion was  to  undertake  the  study  of  Latin, 
and  at  the  completion  of  each  task  she 
would  look  up  with  those  patient  wistful 
eyes  of  hers  into  Bolander's  face  and  ask 
if  it  were  not  almost  time  to  bes;in. 

It    was    because    they    were    so    very 
patient  and  wistful,  and  Jack  Bolander's 


7<3      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

heart  so  very  soft,  that  one  day  in  a 
weak  moment  he  yielded.  It  was  weak 
of  him,  because  he  really  felt  that  it 
would  be  better  for  Peggy  first  to  learn 
simple  things,  but  his  consent  gave  her 
such  pleasure  that  he  really  could  not 
withdraw  it. 

When  he  took  down  from  his  shelf  a 
Latin  grammar,  and,  opening  it  before 
her,  repeated  a  few  words  that  he  said 
she  might  learn,  Peggy's  heart  nearly 
burst  with  pride. 

It  was  the  declension  of  a  Latin  noun, 
and  it  may  be  that  he  had  no  idea  what 
a  tremendous  task  he  was  setting  for  his 
pupil,  or  perhaps  he  thought  the  ordeal 
of  learning  it  would  weaken  her  wish  to 
study  the  language.  If  this  was  his 
plan  it  did  not  work  as  he  anticipated, 
for  Peggy  would  have  studied  all  night 
rather  than  fail  in  this  lesson.     When 


A   Puzzling  Question.  71 

the  time  came  to  recite  it,  the  old  famil- 
iar words  came  tripping  from  her  rosy 
lips  in  a  way  that  sent  Bolander  off  into 
peals  of  laughter. 

"  What  's  the  matter?  did  n't  I  say  it 
right  ?  "   Peggy  anxiously  inquired. 

"  You  are  such  a  mite,  Peg,  you 
have  n't  an  idea  how  funny  it  sounds. 
Just  say  it  again,  will  you  ?  " 

So  once  more  she  carefully  pronounced 
the  words,  which  were  followed  by  an- 
other shout  of  laughter. 

"  Oh  hush  !  there  goes  Mr.  Fullerton, 
and  he  '11  be  coming  in  to  see  what 's 
the  matter." 

"  Let  him  come,"  said  Bolander  ami- 
ably. "  It 's  as  good  as  the  circus  any- 
how. Peggy,  what  earthly  use  do  you 
ever  expect  to  have  for  Latin  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  did  n't  suppose  it 's  ever  of 
any  use  to  anybody.      Is  it,  Mr.   Bolan- 


72      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

der  ?  What  use  will  it  ever  be  to 
you  r 

"  I  am  going  to  be  a  doctor,  you 
know,  and  will  have  to  write  my  pre- 
scriptions in  Latin.  Don't  you  know  if 
they  are  not  written  in  Latin  they 
won't  effect  a  cure  ?  " 

"  You  are  trying  to  chaff  me,"  cried 
Peggy,  who  of  course  picked  up  all  sorts 
of  queer  college  words.  "  Goose  oil  is 
not  a  Latin  name,  and  it  cured  my  sore 
throat." 

"But  this  isn't  telling  me  why  you 
wish  to  study  Latin,"  persisted  Bolander. 
"  You  must  explain  yourself." 

"  Well,  maybe  I  '11  be  a  doctor  too." 

"  That 's  gammon.  You  're  going  to 
be  an  inventor,  you  know." 

"  I  may  invent  pills,  and  they  won't 
effect  a  cure  unless  they  have  a  Latin 
name,"  cried    Peggy  in  triumph. 


A  Puzzling  Question.  73 

Mr.  Bolander  had  first  taken  notice  of 
Peggy  out  of  pity,  but  he  came  to  care 
for  her  very  much.  He  often  thought 
he  should  always  remember  the  little 
figure  in  its  rather  dirty  brown  frock 
studying  Latin  at  his  side  as  that  of  the 
only  intimate  friend  he  had  made  during 
his  college  days.  He  was  a  sociable 
fellow,  and,  having  found  that  a  secret 
was  safe  with  Peggy,  often  took  her  into 
his  confidence.  Thus  she  came  to  know 
very  well  how  many  economies  unknown 
to  the  other  young  men  he  was  forced 
to  practise,  in  order  to  go  through  the 
college  course,  and  she  did  her  little 
best  to  cheer  and  help  him.  She  had 
cut  off  the  frayed  edges  of  his  cuffs 
until  they  were  pinked  all  round  where 
the  scissors  had  slipped,  and  she  had 
slashed  into  the  linen,  and  his  hat  was 
almost  worn  out  with  frequent  brushing. 


74      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

If  he  only  were  dressed  in  such  smart 
suits  as  the  other  boys  wore,  she  was 
sure  he  would  look  very  handsome ;  and 
when  after  much  pinching  he  bought  his 
new  mackintosh,  Peggy  was  as  pleased 
as  if  it  had  been  a  new  dress  for  herself. 
When  the  examinations  came  off,  the 
little  girl's  anxiety  equalled  his  own. 
How  could  he  help  loving  her,  even  if 
she  were  but  a  little  servant,  and  not 
always  over  clean  ? 

But  Mr.  Bolander  was  destined  to 
make  other  friends  than  Peggy.  The 
first  of  these  was  Randolph,  the  elder  of 
Dr.  Moran's  two  sons. 

Randolph  was  to  enter  college  the 
following  fall,  and  hoped  that  he  was 
qualified  to  enter  the  second  year,  in 
which  case  he  would  be  a  classmate  of 
Bolander's.  It  was  upon  his  first  visit 
to   Bolander's  room  that  he  saw  Peggy, 


A  Puzzling  Question.  75 

for  it  was  the  little  girl's  study  hour  at 
that  time. 

"  She  is  the  very  image  of  my  little  sis- 
ter," he  said,  staring  at  her  in  astonish- 
ment. "  By  the  likeness  any  one  would 
take  them  for  twin  sisters.  Whose  kid 
is  she,  Bolander?  Where  does  she 
come  from  ?  " 

"  She  comes  from  Mrs.  Bagley's  kitch- 
en. She  is  my  landlady's  assistant," 
Bolander  answered,  "  and  she  has  a  turn 
for  the  classics.  Peggy,  my  dear,  we 
are  so  nearly  through  with  the  lessons 
I  think  I  will  let  you  off  now." 

But  before  she  was  permitted  to  go 
Randolph  called  Arthur,  who  was  also 
in  the  house,  who  came  and  testified  to 
the  likeness. 

When  released,  Peggy  went  upstairs 
to  her  closet  with  the  skylight,  and,  a 
few  minutes  of  her  hour  yet  remaining, 


j 6      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

she  threw  herself  down  on  her  cot.  As 
she  lay  there  a  great  many  thoughts 
came  swarming  into  her  little  head,  — 
thoughts  principally  of  the  home  and 
the  kind  matron  there,  who  used  to  tell 
her  sometimes  of  the  day  she  and  a  little 
twin  sister  were  first  brought  to  her,  and 
the  pretty  way  they  played  together, 
like  two  kittens,  on  the  floor.  A  gen- 
tleman had  come,  at  length,  and  carried 
away  her  little  sister.  He  had  adopted 
her  as  a  child  of  his  own,  Peggy  was 
told,  and  she  would  probably  never  see 
her  a^ain. 

But  this  sometimes  seemed  to  her  too 
cruel  to  believe.  When  she  first  came 
to  the  Bagleys,  in  the  terrible  loneliness 
of  the  big  houseful  of  people,  all  careless 
of  herself,  she  thought  continually  of  the 
matron's  story,  and  comforted  herself 
with  the  belief  that  some  time  she  would 


A  Puzzling  Question.  77 

find  her  sister,  and  they  would  live  to- 
gether as    other  sisters  did. 

But  children's  memories  are  short. 
When  Mr.  Bolander  came  and  befriended 
her,  Peggy's  mind  was  filled  with  other 
thoughts.  He  was  much  more  inter- 
esting than  a  sister  she  could  not  re- 
member,  and  whom  she  was  never  again 
to  see. 

But  now  as  she  lay  on  the  cot  looking 
up  to  the  square  patch  of  blue  sky  above 
the  skylight  she  carefully  recalled  every 
word  she  had  ever  heard  about  her 
sister. 

It  seemed  as  if  this  little  girl  they 
spoke  of  must  be  the  same  child  that  had 
played  with  her  at  the  home;  and  yet 
if  she  were  the  sister  of  these  fine  young 
gentlemen  she  could  not  be  hers.  It 
was  a  terrible  puzzle  to  Peggy. 

At  length,  one  day  she  slipped  out  of 


78      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

the  house  determined  to  see  this  little 
girl  who  was  said  to  bear  such  a  wonder- 
ful likeness  to  herself. 

When  she  reached  Dr.  Moran's 
grounds,  Wilifred  happened  to  be 
playing  tennis  with  Arthur,  —  the 
Doctor  watching  the  game  from  one 
of  the  seats  under  the  maple  trees. 
It  was  he  who  spied  poor  Peggy  as 
she  stood  by  the  wall,  looking  with 
curious  eyes  at  Wilifred  as  she  darted 
hither  and  thither  over  the  ground. 

Peggy  was  thinking,  as  she  stood 
there,  that  this  little  girl  in  her  pretty 
dress  and  jaunty  tennis  cap,  although 
much  more  beautiful,  yet  bore  a  strange 
resemblance  to  the  reflection  she  some- 
times caught  in  the  mirrors  of  the  lodg- 
ing-house slavey.  She  had  just  such  a 
tangle  of  red  gold  curls,  just  such  soft 
hazel    eyes,  and    a  nose   and    a  mouth 


u.h 


/■ 


\M'-:*-JPS     *j 


\- 


mmWP 


••WHAT    DO    YOU    WANT    HERE?-'    HE    ASKED. 


So      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

which  for  the  first  time  it  occurred  to 
her  were  very  pretty.  As  for  the  little 
girls  companions  she  hardly  saw  them, 
so  that  when  the  Doctor  suddenly 
spoke  close  beside  her  she  gave  a  start 
of  surprise. 

"  What  do  you  want  here  ? "  he 
asked,  in  a  tone  which  he  tried  to  make 
sharp,  but  which  his  really  kind  heart 
forbade. 

The  look  Peggy  gave  him  from  out 
her  timid  eyes  carried  him  back  to 
that  day  when  she  had  hidden  her  face 
in  the  matron's  lap,  while  her  sister  had 
toddled  across  the  floor  to  his  side. 
Then  he  had  wished  to  carry  her  off 
with  the  other  child  ;  but  now  his  chief 
desire  was  that  he  might  never,  or  more 
particularly  that  Wilifred  might  never 
see  her  again.  For  the  Doctor  was  a 
proud  man,  and  he  did  not  like  to  think 


A  Puzzling  Question.  Si 

that  this  girl,  so  ragged,  dirty,  and 
humble,  could  claim  any  kinship  to  his 
little  daughter ;  and  beside  he  wished 
Wilifred  to  identify  herself  with  his  own 
family,  and  never  realize  that  she  had  a 
sister  of  her  own. 

At  the  sudden  question,  shy  little 
Peggy  moved  away  from  the  stone  wall 
upon  which  she  had  been  leaning,  and 
answered,  "  I  only  wanted  to  see  the 
little  girl ;    I  'm  not  doing  any  harm." 

"  You  are  loosening  the  stones  in  the 
wall,"  said  the  Doctor,  feeling  that  on 
some  pretext  or  other  he  must  drive  the 
harmless,  soft-eyed  little  creature  away. 
He  took  a  coin  from  his  pocket,  and, 
hardening:  his  heart,  went  on,  "  Take 
this  and  be  off,  and  don't  let  me  catch 
you  hanging  about  here    again." 

He  felt  like  a  brute  as  he  watched 
her  move  obediently  on  in  the  direction 


82      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifrcd. 

his  cruel  forefinger  indicated,  —  but 
at  least  Will  had  not  even  seen  her. 
Peggy's  eyes  had  that  dumb,  patient 
look  that  is  seen  in  the  eyes  of  ill-used 
animals,  —  touching,  because  it  seems 
as  if  they  realized  their  own  helpless- 
ness ;  and  she  turned  them  to  him  as 
she  walked  away,  making  him  feel  still 
more  uncomfortable.  It  is  a  sad  thing 
to  be  forbidden  even  so  much  as  to  look 
at  one's  own  sister,  —  the  only  relation 
she  had  in  the  world,  as  the  matron  had 
told  him. 

It  seemed  like  a  cruel  breaking  of 
one  of  the  sweetest  ties  of  nature,  and 
although  he  could  form  for  Wilifred 
other  ties  to  take  the  place  of  this,  yet 
who  had  considered  the  wrong  to  this, 
lonely  little  girl,  that,  as  he  had  been 
told,  was  merely  the  servant  of  a  lodg- 
ing-house keeper? 


A  Puzzling  Question.  S 


o 


The  coin  which  the  child  had  not 
even  noticed  was  still  in  his  hand.  He 
dropped  it  into  his  pocket  and  walked 
on,  devising  a  scheme  which  he  hoped 
would  atone  for  any  wrong  he  might 
have  done  to  Peggy. 


84     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER  V. 

# 

CONTRASTS. 

AS  she  walked  home,  Peggy  felt 
that  she  was  no  nearer  the  so- 
lution of  the  puzzle  than  before  It  did 
not  seem  to  her  that  the  dainty  little 
creature  she  had  just  seen  could  be  the 
same  child  that  as  a  baby  had  played 
with  her  on  the  floor  at  the  home. 

She  was  thinking  too  intently  of  this 
matter  to  be  much  troubled  by  what  the 
Doctor  had  said.  Beside,  she  was  too 
accustomed  to  snubs  to  be  astonished 
or  to  resent  them,  accepting  them 
meekly  as  the  hard  luck  of  a  slavey. 
Moreover,  half-way  between  Delhaven 
and  the  town  she  came  upon  a  bit  of 


Contrasts.  85 

roadside  literally  gemmed  with  violets. 
Sisters  were  sometimes  unsubstantial 
property,  it  seemed,  but  the  violets 
were  really  before  her,  and  oh  how  big 
and    sweet    they   were ! 

She  remembered  once  having  heard 
Mr.  Bolander  say  that  he  'thought  no 
flower  was  so  beautiful  ;  and  Peggy 
thought  it  would  be  pleasant  to  gather  a 
whole  bunch  of  them,  and  place  them 
on  his  table  as  a  surprise.  However,  it 
was  too  late  to  gather  them  then,  for 
there  were  yet  many  tasks  to  be  per- 
formed at  home. 

So,  promising  herself  to  come  for  the 
violets  the  following  afternoon,  she 
went    happily    on. 

Mrs.  Bagley  had  been  receiving  a 
call,  and  had  not  even  noticed  Peggy's 
absence.  She  was  in  a  wonderfully 
good-natured  and    sociable    mood,    and 


86      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

for  the  want  of  an  older  listener  began 
talking  to  Peggy. 

"  I  can  tell  you  Mis'  Brewer  holds  her 
head  pretty  high,  but  why  should  n't  she, 
with  all  the  money  they  've  made  out  of 
that  egg-beater.  She  don't  set  so  much 
by  education  as  I  do.  I  could  see  that ; 
but  lor',  there 's  odds  in  passengers. 
That  shawl  she  wore  would  be  a  passe- 
pour-tout,  as  the  French  say,  into  any 
s'ciety,  though  shawls  has  rather  gone 
by.  I  studied  French  when  I  was  a  girl, 
Peg."  (Mrs.  Bagley  pronounced  this 
word  geurl  when  she  was  in  company, 
and  she  was  still  speaking  as  if  she 
thought  Mrs.  Brewer  might  be  hidden 
under  the  sofa.)  "  To  be  sure,  I  never 
got  so  's  to  speak  it,  but  my  father  paid 
enough  for  me  to  have  learned  to  speak 
it  like  a  native  born,  and  that  comes  to 
the  same  thing.     He  gave  his  children 


Contrasts.  8y 

every  advantage,  for  he  used  to  say  they 
were  of  good  breed  and  worth  training". 
Lor' !  I  little  thought  in  them  palmy 
days  how  all  the  accomplishments  he 
was  a-paying  for  would  be  wasted  in 
this  kitchen.  I  never  walked  into  the 
kitchen  in  them  days,  for  we  kep'  plenty 
of  help,  —  colored  help,  —  my  mother 
would  n't  have  white  women,  because 
she  said  they  always  wanted  to  mix  and 
mingle  with  you.  An'  to  think,"  ex- 
claimed Mrs.  Bagley,  pathetically,  with 
a  disparaging  look  at  her  meek  little 
handmaid,  —  "  to  think  how  I  have  now 
to  do  all  my  work  with  only  a  worthless 
young  one  to  help  me." 

"  I  'm  growing  as  fast  as  I  can," 
said  Peggy,  swallowing  her  mortifi- 
cation, with  a  smiling  resolve  to  grow 
as  fast  and  be  as  useful  as  she  could, 
and    thus    make    the    contrast    between 


88      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

those  palmy  days  and  the  present  less 
painful. 

"  You  '11  take  your  time  about  it,  I 
expect,"  snapped  Mrs.  Bagley.  "  Chil- 
dren from  'sylums,  that  folks  bring  up 
to  be  a  help  to  'em,  are  always  slow 
growers.  Well,  as  I  was  saying,  we 
geurls  had  every  advantage.  I  could 
have  gone  to  Europe  and  taken  lessons 
of  the  old  masters  if  I  'd  wanted  to,  but 
I  was  always  retiring.  That 's  been  the 
trouble  with  me,  or  I  should  have  made 
my  mark  long  ago.  Seems  's  if  't  was 
an  awful  sacrifice  to  have  gone  an1  mar- 
ried Bagley,  but  't  is  as  't  is.  I  'spect 
the  powers  that  be  must  have  seen 
he  could  never  have  got  along  by 
himself." 

And  now,  suddenly,  Mrs.  Bagley  re- 
sumed her  usual  manner,  saying  crossly, 
"  Bagley !      He     don't     no     more    care 


Contrasts.  89 

whether  I  slave  myself  to  death  than 
you  do.  What  under  the  canopy  do 
you  set  there  starin'  at  me  for  with  all 
there  is  in  this  house  to  do  ?  Go  to 
work  this  minute,  Peg." 

Thus  being  brought  back  to  the  real- 
ities of  life,  Peggy  now  flew  about  to 
make  up  for  lost  time  ;  but  it  was  al- 
ready growing  dark  when  she  went  up- 
stairs with  the  lamps.  The  rooms  were 
nearly  all  vacant,  and  Peggy,  depositing 
the  last  and  the  best  of  the  lamps  on 
Mr.  Bolander's  table,  sat  clown  to  take 
breath. 

She  curled  herself  up  in  his  big  chair, 
meaning  to  wait  until  he  came  in.  Pen 
haps,  having  heard  none  all  day,  she 
longed  for  a  kind  word ;  for  Mr.  Bolan- 
der  was  cramming  for  an  examination 
just  then,  and  her  lessons  had  been 
omitted.     Perhaps  she  wished  to  know 


90      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

how  it  had  passed,  and  to  give  him  the 
pleasant  word  instead  of  receiving  it. 

She  heard  the  other  young  men  come 
in,  one  by  one,  and  then  go  out  again 
for  the  evening  ;  but  Peggy  still  waited, 
and  at  last  a  very  strange  thing  hap- 
pened. 

Some  one  quietly  opened  the  door 
and  stepped  stealthily  in.  It  was  Ful- 
lerton,  and  she  was  so  taken  by  surprise 
that  she  sat  perfectly  motionless  while 
he  tiptoed  across  the  floor  to  the  table. 
His  back  being  toward  her,  Peggy 
could  not  see  exactly  what  he  was 
doing  there,  but  she  distinctly  heard 
the  rustling  of  papers.  Presently,  quite 
unconscious  that  the  bright  eyes  of  the 
slavey  had  been  upon  him,  Fullerton 
crept    out    again. 

Peggy  was  stunned,  but  she  knew 
what    she    had    seen.     "  He    is   playing 


Contrasts.  9 1 

some  mean  joke  off  on  Mr.  Bolander," 
she  whispered,  with  tears. 

She  waited  until  she  heard  him  ofo 
down  stairs,  and  knew  that  he  was  out 
of  the  house,  and  then  went  into  his 
room  and  looked  about  it  as  if  to  find 
some  explanation  of  his  strange  conduct. 

"Why  had  he  meddled  with  Mr. 
Bolander's  papers  ?  "  she  asked  herself 
anxiously. 

On  his  own  table  were  a  number  of 
well  written  sheets  of  paper.  One  of 
these  as  Peggy  touched  it  slipped  out, 
and  fell  from  the  table  into  the  waste- 
basket  beneath.  A  slam  of  the  front 
door  now  hurried  Peggy  from  the  room, 
in  which  she  had  no  wish  to  be  caught. 

In  the  morning  she  meant  to  put  the 
sheet  of  paper  in  its  place  with  the 
others ;  but  there  was  no  time  then,  and 
in  the  mean  time,  if  Mr.  Fullerton  had  a 


92      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

vain  search  for  it,  she  told  herself  that 
it  would  be  no  more  than  he  deserved. 

But  in  the  morning  Peggy  forgot  this 
little  incident  altogether,  for  the  morn 
ing  brought  a  train  of  troubles.  It 
was  washing-day,  and  no  matter  how 
hard  she  tried,  she  could  not  please 
Mrs.   Bagley,  who  was  tired   and  cross. 

The  stove  smoked,  and  the  clothes 
would  not  dry.  Everything  went  wrong, 
but  no  one  was  to  blame,  least  of  all 
little  Peggy,  who  nevertheless  had  to 
suffer  for  it.  One  would  not  think 
that  even  a  person  in  a  temper  would 
have  the  heart  to  scold  the  gentle  little 
soul,  who  never  thought  of  answering 
back,  but  worked  patiently  on,  with  her 
pretty  face  full  of  trouble. 

There  was  no  lack  of  hard  work  that 
day,  and  Peggy's  legs  ached  and  ached, 
and  nobody  noticed  and  nobody  cared. 


Contrasts.  93 

When  the  afternoon  came,  she  was 
really  too  tired  to  go  for  the  violets,  but 
she  felt  it  would  not  do  to  neglect  so 
unusual  a  chance  of  giving  pleasure  to 
Mr.  Bolander. 

Mrs.  Bagley,  upon  being  asked  for 
her  permission,  declared  that,  as  she  was 
not  good  for  much  of  anything  at  home, 
she  might  as  well  go,  and  Peggy  took 
advantage  of  the  permission  without 
stopping  to  think  of  the  unkindness  of 
her  words. 

When  she  reached  the  spot  where  the 
violets  grew,  she  was  so  tired,  and  every- 
thing seemed  so  miserable,  that  she 
would  have  liked  for  once  to  have  a 
good  cry ;  but  she  winked  away  the 
tears,  trying  to  think  of  something 
pleasant,  and  the  sagest  philosopher 
could  not  have  counselled  a  wiser 
course. 


94      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

She  stretched  her  tired  little  body  on 
the  ground  where  the  bushes  hid  her 
from  the  road,  and,  laying  her  hot  cheek 
against  the  fresh  turf,  listened  to  the 
comfort  the  chirping  little  creatures 
that    lived    there    had    to    offer. 

Presently  the  sound  of  wheels  aroused 
her,  and  then  she  heard  the  voice  of 
a  little  girl  exclaim,  "  O  papa !  what 
lovely  violets !  I  want  to  get  out  and 
gather  some  of  them  !  " 

"  Well,  you  must  make  haste  then, 
Will,"  answered  a  man's  voice,  and 
Peggy,  recognizing  it  as  the  voice  of 
Dr.  Moran,  shudderingly  drew  back 
still  farther  behind  the  bushes.  "  You 
know  how  Barbarina  hates  to  stand." 

"  O  papa,  you  go  on,  and  take  me 
up  when  you  come  back,"  cried  the 
little  girl..  "  It  takes  ever  so  long  to 
pick  violets." 


THE   CHILDREN   STOOD    PERFECTLY    QUIET,    LOOKING   GRAVELY    AT 
EACH    OTHER. 


g6      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  I  don't  know  about  leaving  you  here 
alone,"  said  Dr.  Moran,  anxiously;  but 
Barbarina  approved  so  strongly  of  the 
plan  as  to  overcome  the  objections  of 
the  Doctor,  who  finally  drove  off,  leaving 
Wilifred  smiling  by  the  roadside. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  meeting  took 
place  that  he  was  trying  so  earnestly  to 
prevent,  for  in  a  moment  more  Wilifred 
and  Peggy  were  standing  face  to  face. 

It  was  a  curious  moment,  for  the 
children  stood  perfectly  quiet,  looking 
gravely  at  each  other,  without  speaking. 

"  You  are  the  little  girl  they  say  looks 
so  like  me,"  Wilifred  said  at  length. 
"  I  am  very  glad  you  are  not  homelier." 

"  Oh !  did  you  ever  hear  of  me  be- 
fore ? "  cried  Peggy,  humbly.  "  I  saw 
you  yesterday  when  you  were  playing 
tennis.  Your  papa  came  to  our  house, 
and  said  he  did  n't  want  us  to  see  each 


Contrasts.  97 

other,  and  Mrs.  Bagley  scolded  me  for 
going  where   I  am  not  wanted." 

"  Well,"  said  Wilifred,  smiling,  "  here 
we  are  anyhow,  and  it  is  n't  your  fault, 
and  it  is  n't  mine.  I  came  to  gather 
some  violets." 

"  So  did  I,"  said  Peggy. 

The  children  stooped  down  and  be- 
gan to  pick  the  flowers,  but  Wilifred 
went  on  talking. 

"  I  don't  see  why  papa  should  mind 
my  seeing  you.  I  used  to  play  with  a 
little  peasant  girl  in  Nice,  and  he  never 
cared  for  that.  If  you  were  ugly,  he 
might  think  it  would  hurt  my  feelings, 
because  the  boys  say  you  look  so  like 
me.  But  no,"  said  Wilifred  slowly,  tak- 
ing another  look  at  the  child,  —  "  you 
are  certainly  not  ugly.  How  you  stare 
at  me  !  You  had  better  pick  your  violets, 
or   I  shall  get  them  all." 


98      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"Well,  you  may  have  them.  I  don't 
care  for  the  violets  now.  Your  name  is 
Wilifred,  is  n't  it?  Mine  is  Peggy,"  one 
little  sister  announced  to  the  other. 

"  They  are  not  the  same  sort  of  names, 
are  they  ?  Mine  is  finer  than  yours ; 
but  no  matter.  I  '11  tell  you  something, 
Peggy,  —  you  are  really  prettier  than 
I  am." 

"  O  no,"  gasped  modest  Peggy,  "  not 
nearly  as  pretty." 

"  Yes,  I  can't  tell  you  why,  but  you 
are.  Perhaps  it 's  because  your  eyes  are 
so  soft  and  shining.  You  look  gentle 
and  good.  Peggy  is  n't  a  pretty  enough 
name  for  you." 

"  I  was  called  Margaret  at  the  home." 

"  The  home  ?  "  echoed  Will,  staring  a 
little  in  turn. 

"  Yes,  that  was  before  I  came  to  the 
Bagleys'.  Where  did  you  live  before 
you  came  here  ?  " 


Contrasts.  99 

"  O,  we  travelled  about  all  the  time. 
In  Italy,  France,  Germany,  wherever 
mamma  wished  to  go." 

"  Well,  where  were  you  when  you 
were  a  baby,"  persisted  Peggy. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Wilifred  ;  but  no 
sooner  had  she  spoken  the  words  than 
the  almost  forgotten  story  of  the  nurse 
flashed  into  her  mind. 

"  Are  you  really  the  sister  of  the 
young  gentlemen  I  saw  in  Mr.  Bolan- 
der's  room  ?  They  said  you  were  their 
sister,  but  that  you  and  I  are  like  twins. 
I  have  a  twin  sister,  but  she  was  taken 
away  from  me  when  we  were  babies, 
and  I  don't  know  where  she  is  now.  I 
could  n't  help  thinking  that  perhaps  you 
might  be  she.  Please  don't  be  angry 
with  me,"  said   Peggy,  meekly. 

Wilifred's  cheeks  flushed.  It  was 
never  her  wish  to  tell  strangers  that  the 


ioo     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Doctor  was  not  her  own  papa,  and  he 
himself  had  once  told  her  that  she  had 
better  not  answer  questions  like  this,  it 
being  a  subject  which  only  concerned 
themselves.  But  here  was  this  strange 
little  girl,  with  her  great  steady  eyes 
fixed  upon  her  face,  and  whose  earnest- 
ness would  have  an  answer. 

"  They  are  not  my  own  brothers,"  she 
said  at  length,  "  and  I  too  had  a  twin 
sister." 

The  two  children  looked  again  stead- 
ily at  each  other.  Peggy's  tace  was 
shining  with  happiness. 

"  You  are  my  twin  sister,"  Wilifred 
went  on  ;  for,  indeed,  looking  at  the  face 
so  like  her  own,  who  could  doubt  it  ? 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  happy !  so  happy  !  " 
laughed  little  Peggy.  "  I  knew  I  should 
find  you  some  time,  although  the  matron 
said  I  never  would.     She  used   to   tell 


Contrasts.  101 

me  how  cunning  you  were,  and  how 
nicely  we  played  together  when  we  were 
babies,  and  just  how  it  all  happened." 

"  How  did  it  happen  ?  "  asked  Will. 

"  Well,  you  see,  a  gentleman  came 
one  day  to  the  home  to  choose  a  little 
girl  for  a  daughter,"  Peggy  began  in  the 
very  words  she  had  so  often  listened  to. 
"  It  was  Dr.  Moran,  of  course,  only  I 
never  knew  his  name  before,  and  we 
were  babies  just  learning  to  walk  and  to 
talk.  We  were  just  alike,  and  the  ma- 
tron always  said  we  were  very  good  and 
cunning." 

"  I  think  we  must  have  been  very 
pretty  babies,"  interrupted  Wilifred,  with 
a  look  at  Peggy. 

"  Yes,  we  must  have  been  pretty," 
Peggy  assented,  with  her  admiring  eyes 
fixed  upon  her  sister's  lovely  little  face. 
"  At  any  rate,  we  looked  exactly  alike, 


102      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

and  the  gentleman  at  first  could  n't 
make  up  his  mind  which  of  us  to  choose. 
So  while  he  was  looking  at  us  and  trying 
to  decide,  what  should  you  do,  Wilifred, 
but  run  up  to  him,  calling, '  Papa !  papa ! ' 
So  he  chose  you." 

"  Is  that  all  ?  "  asked  Wilifred. 

"  Yes,  that 's  about  all.  The  matron 
said  that,  before  they  took  you  away,  she 
put  you  down  beside  me  and  you  patted 
my  face,  saying,  '  Poor !  poor!'  just  as 
babies  do." 

Will  leaned  forward  and  repeated 
the  caress,  looking  pityingly  at  Peggy. 
Then  she  impetuously  broke  out,  "  I 
think  I  was  a  real  scheming:  selfish 
kind  of  a  baby  to  get  ahead  of  you  so ! 
I  'm  ashamed  of  it." 

"  O  no,  you  were  just  as  sweet  and 
cunning  as  you  could  be,"  protested 
Peggy.     "  I  was  a  silly  baby,  and  afraid 


Contrasts.  103 

of  people,  I  suppose,  just  as  I  am 
now." 

"  If  I  had  n't  gone  to  him  and  called 
him  papa  he  might  have  chosen  you. 
Then  you  would  now  be  in  my  place, 
and  I  —  why,  I  would  be  Mrs.  Bagley's 
servant,  would  n't  I  ?  How  I  should 
hate  it !  but  then  it  would  be  no  worse 
for  me  than  it  is  for  you.  I  feel  just  as 
if  I  had  cheated  you.  O  Peggy,  is  it 
very  horrid  at  the   Bagleys'  ?  " 

"  It 's  not  so  very  bad,"  was  the 
patient  answer.  "  Of  course,  I  don't 
wear  pretty  clothes  as  you  do.  I  'm 
just  the  slavey." 

"  The  slavey  ?  " 

"  Yes,  that  s  what  the  college  boys 
call  me." 

"  Well,  it 's  a  shame,  for  you  are  much 
too  pretty  for  a  slavey,"  broke  out  Wili- 
fred,  and  then  blushed,  feeling  that  she 


104     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

had  been  paying  herself  a  compli- 
ment. 

"  But  I  am  a  slavey,"  said  Peggy.  "  I. 
have  to  wait  on  the  lodgers,  you  see ; 
there  is  n't  anybody  else  to  do  it.  And 
when  I  am  not  waiting  on  the  lodgers  I 
am  waiting  on  Mrs.  Bagley.  It 's  hard 
work,  to  be  sure,  and  it  makes  your  legs 
ache  sometimes,  I  can  tell  you.  But 
then  they  get  rested  again." 

Wilifred  sighed,  and  an  expression 
of  real  distress  clouded  her  soft,  hap- 
py little  face.  Peggy's  life  seemed 
dreary  as  she  thought  of  the  brightness 
and  love  in  her  own,  so  that  her  voice 
was  very  earnest  as  she  said,  "  If 
I  could,  I  would  share  everything  I 
have  with  you.  Once  I  knew  two 
twin  sisters,  and  if  one  had  a  thing  the 
other  had  to  have  it  too.  That 's  always 
the    way    with    twins.     Indeed,    Peggy, 


Contrasts.  105 

I  was    a  selfish   baby    to  get   ahead  of 
you  so." 

"Oh,  but  you  didn't  know  what  you 
were  doing,"  Peggy  cried,  "  and  I  'm  sure 
I  'm  ever  so  glad  that  you  are  n't  a 
slavey  too.  I  don't  mind  it  so  much 
except  when  the  young  gentlemen  make 
fun  of  me,  —  they  are  so  full  of  fun,  you 
know.  But  Mr.  Bolander  won't  let 
them  tease  me  much  now.  You  need  n't 
mind  about  me.  I  'm  lots  happier,  too, 
for  knowing  I  belong  to  somebody. 
It 's  nice  even  if  people  don't  seem  to 
like  it.  When  Mrs.  Bagley  says  to  me, 
'  Well,  who  are  you,  I  'd  like  to  know  ? ' 
I  shall  say  to  myself,  '  I  'm  the  sister  of 
Wilifred,'  and  I  shall  feel  so  proud  and 
happy.  It  never  seemed  as  if  I  was 
anybody  before.  You  are  so  good  to 
me,  Wilifred !  You  might  have  been 
cross." 


106      The  Little  Sister  of  Wi I  if  red. 

"  I  should  think  you  are  the  one  to  be 
cross ;  but  I  'm  going  to  try  and  think 
of  some  way  of  making  things  fairer. 
There  ought  to  be  a  way." 

"  O,  no  matter  about  that.  Tell  me, 
are  n't  you  dreadfully  afraid  of  Dr. 
Moran  ?  " 

Wilifred  shouted,  "  He  's  the  nicest  of 
all  the  nice  things  I  have."  Then,  while 
Peggy  listened  in  wonder,  she  went  on 
to  explain  how  fond  she  was  of  him,  and 
how  good  he  always  was  to  her. 

"  Do  you  go  to  school  ?  "  Peggy  asked, 
having  tried  in  vain  to  imagine  Wili- 
fred's  life. 

"  No,  I  have  a  governess." 

"  That 's  nice,"  said  Peggy. 

14  Do  you  call  it  nice  ?  I  think  it 's 
horrid,"  answered  Wilifred.  "  But  I 
don't  study  hard,  because  it 's  summer 
now,  and  papa  told  Miss  Weston  that  I 


Contrasts.  .107 

must  n't  be  taxed.  She  reads  history 
to  me.  We  are  reading  about  Mary, 
Queen    of    Squats." 

"  That  sounds  interesting.  Was  she 
a  dwarf  ?  " 

"  No,  indeed.  I  saw  her  once.  She 
was  in  a  tableau,  and  she  was  very  tall 
and  elegant,  in  a  velvet  dress  with  jew- 
els on  it.  Old  Elizabeth  was  jealous 
of  her,  and  had  her  put  to  death.  She 
was  just  going  to  execution  when  I  saw 
her." 

"  O  dear !  "  cried  little  Peggy ;  "  did  n't 
some  one  come  and  save  her  just  at 
the  last  moment  ?  " 

"  No  ;  but  don't  worry,  Peggy.  After 
the  curtain  fell,  she  took  an  ice  cream 
behind  the  scenes,"  laughed  Wilifred. 

"  The  real  one  did  n't,"  said  Peggy. 

u  No,  but  the  real  one  died  ages  ago. 
She  would  have   died  long  before  this 


108     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

anyhow.  If  you  are  going  to  cry,  it  had 
better  be  because  you  are  a  slavey." 

"  O,  I  don't  want  to  cry  for  that," 
said  Peggy,  cheerfully.  "  I  'm  all  right. 
Tell  me  some  more  about  yourself." 

"  Well,  there  is  nothing  to  cry  over 
about  me.  I  'm  awfully  happy,  —  that 
is,  except  when  Miss  Weston  scolds  me 
for  not  putting  my  mind  on  my  lessons. 
O,  I  hate  dreadfully  to  be  scolded.  I 
have  to  do  all  sorts  of  things  so  as  not 
to  get  angry.  Sometimes  I  count  the 
ands  she  says,  or  the  buts,  and  when  I 
get  ten  I  make  up  a  sentence  that  must 
begin  with  the  letter  that  ends  the  last 
word.  It  has  to  be  something  that  fits 
in,  you  know,  and  it  has  to  be  something 
that 's  perfectly  respectful.  I  would  n't 
be  disrespectful  for  anything,  for  papa 
would  n't  like  that." 

"  I  should  think  she  would  want  you 


Contrasts.  109 

to  listen  when  she  scolds,"  said  Peggy, 
who  always  paid  a  troubled  attention  to 
every  word  of  Mrs.  Bagley's. 

"  Listen  !  My,  you  don't  know  how 
you  have  to  listen  to  do  it !  You  had 
better  try  some  time.  Does  Mrs.  Bag- 
ley  ever  scold  you?" 

"  Y-e-s,  when  she  is  roused,"  said 
Peggy,  delicately.  "  I  'm  so  trying,  you 
see.  I  try  not  to  be  trying,  but  she 
says  it 's  natural  to  me." 

"  I  don't  believe  it.  I  believe  you  are 
just  as  good  and  gentle  as  you  can  be. 
And  to  think  you  are  my  twin !  I 
ought  to  be  the  proud  one.  I  've  a 
dreadful  temper.  Mrs.  Bagley  ought  to 
have  me." 

"  What  sort  of  a  window  was  that 
you  said  was  in  your  room,"  asked 
Peggy 

"  An  oriel  window,  and  it  has  seats 


no     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

all  round  it,  and  shelves  at  the  sides 
with  books,  where  one  can  sit  and  read. 
What  sort  of  a  window  do  you  have  in 
your  room  ?  " 

"  They  call  it  a  skylight,"  was  the 
cheerful  answer.  "  It 's  first-rate  unless 
it  rains.  If  it  rains,  you  have  to  shut  it 
whether  the  weather  is  warm  or  cold, 
and  anyhow  the  rain  leaks  in  some- 
times.    It  drips   down  on  the  bed." 

"  I  should  think  you  would  move  the 
bed  to  some  other  part  of  the  room." 

"  There  is  n't  any  other  part  of  the 
room.  The  bed  covers  most  all  the 
room  there  is.  I  asked  Mrs.  Bagley  to 
let  me  have  her  old  umbrella  to  hold 
up ;  but  she  said,  if  she  did,  by  and  by 
I  'd  want  her  gold  watch  and  fur  tippet. 
She  thinks  I  'm  never  satisfied." 

"  And  don't  you  have  anything  then 
that  is  pleasant  ?  "  asked  Will. 


Contrasts.  1 1 1 

"  Why,  yes,  of  course  I  do,"  protested 
Peggy.  "  There  's  Mr.  Bolander.  No- 
body could  be  pleasanter  than  he  is. 
He  is  my  chum." 

"  I  've  seen  Mr.  Bolander.  He  came 
to  see  Randolph  this  morning,  and  he 
had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  the  like- 
ness between  you  and  me.  He  is  quite 
a  nice  little  man,"  said  Wilifred,  in  a 
patronizing  tone  that  did  not  alto- 
gether please  Peggy  ;  "  but,  dear  me ! 
have  n't  you  anything  pleasant  beside 
Mr.  Bolander?" 

"  Yes,  I  've  a  lucky  star.  I  see  it  at 
night  through  the  skylight.  I  hope 
you  have  one,  too,  Wilifred,  —  it 's  such 
a  comfort." 

"  I  don't  know  whether  I  've  one  or 
not,  and  I  don't  care.  What  good  can 
a  star  be  to  you,  when  it 's  ever  and  ever 
so  far  away  ?  " 


1 1 2      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  It 's  a  great  deal  of  good,"  answered 
Peggy,  eagerly.  "  I  never  feel  half  so 
tired  on  nights  when  I  can  see  my  star. 
It  makes  me  feel  as  if  the  next  day 
everything  was  going  to  be  different." 


A  Bold  Plan.  •  1 1 3 


CHAPTER    VI. 


A    BOLD    PLAN. 


WILIFRED  lay  back  in  the  grass, 
trying  to  think  of  some  plan 
by  which  she  could  share  her  blessings 
with  Peggy.  She  had  always  carried 
her  perplexities  to  Dr.  Moran,  but  in 
this  case  she  feared  he  would  not  help 
her.  And  yet  something  must  be  done. 
Wilifred  would  have  ceased  to  be  her- 
self if  she  had  not  made  this  resolve. 

"  Poor  little  Peggy,'1  she  thought, 
•'  how  queer  it  is,  when  she  is  so  gentle 
and  good,  that  papa  should  not  have 
had  her,  and  that  horrid  Mrs.  Bagley 
have  had  me!     It's  just  what  that  cross 


ii4      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

creature  deserves,  and  perhaps  it 's  what 
I  deserve  too." 

And  then  straightway  the  strangest 
idea  came  into  that  little  girl's  head,  the 
like  of  which  would  never  have  occurred 
to  any  other  than  a  generous,  venture- 
some child  like  herself. 

She  started  up  in  the  grass,  looking 
with  her  bright  eyes  at  Peggy,  like  a 
determined  little  squirrel. 

"  I  knew  I  could  think  of  a  plan,"  she 
said.  "  Now,  I  '11  tell  you  what,  —  we 
will  take  turns  being  Mrs.  Bagley's  ser- 
vant. I  'm  sure  that 's  fair.  Randolph 
and  Arthur  said  that,  if  we  were  dressed 
alike,  no  one  could  tell  us  apart ;  so  we 
have  only  to  change  our  clothes,  and 
you  can  go  home  with  papa,  and  I  will 
go  to  Mrs.  Bagley's.  Won't  it  be 
funny  ?  " 

Peggy,     however,     naturally     shrank 


*     jtfe- 


1 1 6      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

back  in  alarm  from  this  wild  scheme, 
saying,  "  Oh,  we  could  n't  do  that !  I 
would  be  afraid,  indeed  I  would." 

But  Wilifred  would  listen  to  no  ob- 
jections. She  dragged  her  behind  the 
bushes,  and  by  the  force  of  her  deter- 
mination made  her  disrobe  herself  and 
put  on  her  own  pretty  clothes,  while  she 
hastily  dressed  in  those  of  Peggy. 

The  children  were  transformed  by 
the  change  of  clothing,  and  for  some 
time  amused  themselves  by  looking  at 
each  other.    At  length  Wilifred  said  :  — 

"  Once  I  read  a  story  of  two  girls  who 
were  discontented  and  wished  to  change 
places  with  each  other,  but  they  had  to 
have  a  fairy  to  help  them.  We  can  do 
it  without  a  fairy.  Those  girls  in  the 
book  had  a  terrible  time,  and  were  glad 
enough  to  be  themselves  again.  But 
this  is  quite  different,  is  n't  it?  for  I  —  " 


A  Bold  Plan.  117 

she  started  to  say,  "  am  not  discontented 
and  don't  really  wish  to  change  places 
with  anybody,"  but  thinking  this  might 
not  be  pleasant  for  Peggy  to  hear, 
hastily  changed  her  sentence  into  — 
"  shall  play  I  'm  a  princess  in  disguise, 
and  so  I  won't  mind  being  a  slavey.  I 
hope  you  will  have  a  lovely  time,  and  I 
promise  to  stand  it  as  long  as  I  can." 

"  It  s  well  enough  to  pretend  now," 
answered  Peggy,  "but  of  course  we  can't 
do  any  such  thing.  Dr.  Moran  will  be 
cominsf,  and  we  had  better  change  our 
clothes  again." 

"  But  I  say  we  will  do  it,"  was  the 
answer,  made  with  a  determined  nod 
that  set  all  Will's  curls  dancing.  "  Yes, 
Peggy  dear,  you  must  make  up  your 
mind  to  it,  for  I  'm  bent  upon  being  the 
Bagleys'  servant  myself  for  a  while. 
Don't  you  see  it  s    no   more  than  fair, 


1 1 8     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

and  I  should  be  uncomfortable  if  I 
did  n't.  I  want  you  to  have  a  lovely 
time,  and  forget  all  the  horrid  things 
you  've  borne.  When  I  go  back  in  your 
place,  what  will  I  have  to  do  first  ?  " 

"  Well,  there  will  be  the  lamps  and 
the  towels  to  take  round  to  the  different 
rooms.  You  must  be  sure  and  give  the 
best  to  Mr.   Bolander." 

"  Yes,  he  has  been  good  to  us,  and  he 
shall  have  the  best  lamp  as  a  reward," 
laughed  Wilifred.  "  What  else  must 
I  do?" 

"  O  Wilifred !  you  know  you  will 
never  go  there,"  her  sister  cried ;  but 
she  went  on  obediently  to  answer  her 
question.  "  There  will  be  the  table  to 
set  for  supper  and  the  dishes  to  wash 
up.      You  could  n't  do  that." 

"  Plenty  well  enough  for  the  Bagleys," 
answered  Wilifred,  quite  undismayed  at 
the  prospect.     "  Go  on.     What  else  ?  " 


A  Bold  Plan.  1 1 9 

"  You  will  have  to  bring  in  the  kin- 
dlings for  morning,  and  I  think  there 
are  some  dish-towels  to  hem." 

"  Well,  I  can  do  them  after  a  fashion, 
though  I  must  say  I  never  expected  to 
hem  Mrs.  Baglev's  dish-towels.  Let 's 
see  :  I  know  the  house  quite  well,  —  the 
brown  one  next  to  the  livery  stable,  and 
it  has  high  steps  to  the  door." 

"  Yes,  but  you  must  go  to  the  back 
door,  or  Mrs.  Bagley  will  scold  you," 
said  Peggy.  Then,  quite  overwhelmed, 
as  she  well  might  be,  at  the  boldness  of 
the  plan,  she  cried  out,  "  Oh,  I  can't  let 
you  go  there,  Wilifred !  And  besides  I 
would  n't  dare  to  take  your  place  at  the 
Morans.  Indeed,  I  would  n't  dare  to  do 
such  a  thino-." 

"  You  can't  be  my  twin,  after  all,  if  you 
are  such  a  coward  as  that,"  said  Wili- 
fred, laughing  at  Peggy's  fears.     "  Why, 


120     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

you  will  have  nothing  to  do  except  when 
the  carriage  comes  to  jump  in  and  go 
home.  There  will  be  no  dish-towels  to 
hem,  I  can  tell  you.  You  must  go  and 
kiss  mamma  good  night  before  you  go 
to  bed,  —  I  always  do  that." 

"  Oh  !  "  gasped  Peggy,  "  I  never  can. 
Please  give  me  back  my  clothes,  Wili- 
fred.    You  must." 

"  And  be  good  to  Black  Beauty,  giv- 
ing him  sugar  when  you  ride  him,  and 
take  lots  of  notice  of  Tramp." 

"  A  dog  !  "  cried  little  Peggy.  "  One 
of  Mr.  Fullerton's  dogs  bit  me  once.  I 
don't  like  dogs." 

"  We  are  not  twins  as  to  dogs  then," 
replied  Wilifred,  regarding  her  thought- 
fully. "  Well,  Tramp  won't  bite.  He 
will  just  wag  his  tail  and  lick  you." 

"  Ow !  that 's  just  as  bad."  Peggy 
drew  back,  as  if  the  dog  were  already 


A  Bold  Plan.  1 2  1 

present.  "  I  don't  like  the  feeling  of 
their  great  flapping  tongues,"  she 
declared. 

"  Hush !  here  comes  the  carriage," 
suddenly  announced   Wilifred. 

The  children  looked  at  each  other, 
Peggy  turning  very  white  and  whis- 
pering, "  Give  me  my  clothes !  Give 
me  my  clothes  !  " 

Barbarina  was  coming  at  her  fastest 
pace,  and  the  Doctor  must  already  have 
seen  them. 

"  It  's  too  late  now,1'  said  Wilifred,  in 
a  firm  voice.  "  If  you  do  not  do  as  I 
tell  you,  we  shall  get  into  trouble.  You 
must  let  no  one  know  what  we  have 
done.  Good  by,  Peggy,  and  be  sure 
and  enjoy  yourself  all  you  can." 

She  slipped  away  behind  the  bushes, 
leaving  her  less  resolute  companion 
trembling  bv  the   roadside. 


122      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

In  a  moment  more  the  carriage 
stopped  at  her  side,  and  a  gloved  hand 
was  held  out  to  her  while  the  Doctor 
said,  "Jump  in,  jump  in,  child!  Bar- 
barina  is  in  a  hurry." 

And  Peggy,  after  a  moment's  painful 
hesitation,  scrambled  into  the  buggy. 

"  What  became  of  that  child  ?  "  asked 
Dr.  Moran,  looking  first  on  one  side  of 
the  road  and  then  on  the  other.  "  That 
was  the  lodging-house  woman's  child  I 
saw  with  you,  Wilifred.  Where  has  she 
gone  r 

"  Off,"  answered  Peggy  ;  and,  short  as 
the  word  is,  it  cost  her  a  great  effort  to 
utter  it. 

"  All  the  better,"  the  Doctor  grum- 
bled. "  I  wish  she  would  keep  off. 
There  is  a  great  social  gulf  between  you 
and  that  little  girl,  my  pet.  I  would 
rather  you  would  have  nothing  to  say  to 
her." 


A  Bold  Plan.  123 

Not  being  by  nature  deceitful,  Peggy 
tried  to  summon  courage  to  explain 
what  had  been  done,  so  the  Doctor 
would  stop  Barbarina  and  call  Wilifred 
back;  but  she  was  such  a  timid  little 
thing,  and  she  recalled  so  distinctly 
how  big  and  angry  he  looked  when  he 
had  sent  her  away  from  Delhaven  bid- 
ding her  never  to  come  back  again, 
that  she  shrank  back  in  the  carnage, 
thankful  that  Wilifred's  large  hat  shaded 
her  face,  and  thinking  it  would  be  easier 
to  tell  him  by  and  by. 


124      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

A    PRINCESS    IN    DISGUISE. 

WHEN  Wilifred  saw  Peggy  get 
into  the  carriage  and  drive 
away  in  her  place,  she  felt  very  strangely. 
She  impulsively  scrambled  out  of  the 
bushes  and  ran  into  the  road  screaming, 
"  Papa  !  papa  !  " 

But  Dr.  Moran  did  not  hear  her,  for 
which  she  was  immediately  very  glad. 

"  I  must  really  be  very  selfish,"  she 
thought.  "  Here  I  have  had  everything 
to  make  me  happy  all  this  time  that 
Peggy  has  been  a  slavey.  And  now  I 
don't  seem  to  be  willing  to  change 
places  with  her.     If  papa  had  heard  me, 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.        i  2 


he  would  certainly  have  stopped,  and  off 

I  should  have  gone  with  him,  just  as  I 

did   when    I   was    a    baby.      Yes,    I 

am  a  horribly  selfish   little   girl." 

And  so  scolding  herself  she  took 

.  -■'. .- :  :~.\  ner  way   to    the 

'. ■  ■"   ''^    '-    rk--^    ,ir  town. 

IgCjjy^  By    the    time 

'^%0e:       the     big     board- 
ing-house   came 
in  sight  she  had 
k  recovered       her 

"L     ..-.-        spirits,  —  it    was 
always    so    easy 
for  Wilifred  to  do  this,  — 
and  made  her  way  to  the 
back  of  the  house,  feeling 
mg|„    apa'  pa~    that  now  the  play  was  go- 
ing to   begin. 
"  It  's  going  to  be  ever  so  exciting," 
the  daring  little  damsel  said  to  herself, 


She   ran   into 
the  road  scream- 


T26      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  and  maybe  I  shall  enjoy  it  after  all. — 
Halloo  !  Stop  !  Ugh  !  I  'm  all  covered 
with  water." 

This  last  remark  was  meant  for  Mrs. 
Bagley  herself,  who,  it  appeared,  was  in 
the  act  of  washing  up  her  back  entry, 
and,  just  as  Wilifred  reached  the  door, 
flung  from  it  a  bucketful  of  dirty  water. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  she  cried  angrily,  "  you 
give  your  orders  as  if  you  were  the 
queen.  When  I  took  you  from  the 
'sylum,  they  did  n't  give  me  to  under- 
stand that  you  were  a  scion  of  royalty." 

"  I  don't  like  to  have  dirty  water 
thrown  at  me,  if  I  'm  not  a  scion,  — 
whatever  that  is,"  answered  Wilifred 
pertly.  Her  eyes  were  black,  her 
cheeks  red,  and  her  manner  as  different 
as  possible  from  meek  little  Peggy's. 

"  I  s'pose  you  have  been  hangin' 
round  that  Moran  child  again,  in  spite 


A   Princess  i?i  Disguise.         127 

of  what  I  told  you  her  pa  said,  an' 
you  are  tryin'  to  imitate  her  airs.  I 
won't  stand  'em  long,  I  can  tell  you 
that.  Who  are  you,  I  'd  like  to  know, 
anyhow  ?  "  Mrs.  Bagley  never  waited 
for  a  reply  to  this  question,  which  she 
frequently  used  as  an  extinguisher  of 
possible  pride  in  Peggy,  and  immedi- 
ately went  on  :  "  You  are  an  ungrateful 
viper  I  took  to  my  bosom  from  the 
orphan  'sylum,  —  an'  the  most  foolish 
day's   work   I   ever   done." 

The  idea  that  she  had  been  hanging 
round  the  Mo  ran  child  so  pleased  Wili- 
fred,  that  she  immediately  recovered  her 
good  nature. 

"  Can't  I  come  into  the  house  ?  "  she 
asked,  in  what  she  meant  for  a  very 
meek  tone. 

Mrs.  Bagley's  portly  person  had 
blocked  up  the  entrance,  but   now  she 


128      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

stood  aside  to  let  Wilifred  pass.  The 
child  carried  herself  in  an  unusually 
erect  and  spirited  way,  she  thought. 
There  was  a  careless  smile  on  her  lips, 
and  her  eyes  met  her  own  in  a  strange, 
fearless  way,  unlike  Peggy's  usual  gentle 
glance,  which  by  no  means  pleased  her. 

"  If  you  want  to  go  in,  step  quick," 
she  said,  looking  at  her  closely.  "  You 
can  dry  yourself  off  by  the  kitchen  fire." 

Wilifred  stepped  in.  She  thought 
Mrs.  Bagley  the  Grossest  of  women. 
Peggy  could  have  told  her  that  it  was 
a  mood  that,  with  her,  always  accom- 
panied the  process  of  washing  floors. 
She  was  by  no  means  the  pink  of  neat- 
ness, and  such  a  task  was  put  off  as 
long  as  possible ;  but  when  the  deed 
must  be  done,  Mrs.  Bagley  rolled  up  her 
sleeves,  and  performed  it  with  a  great 
swashing  of  water,  and   much  scolding. 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         129 

Wilifred  found  the  kitchen  damp  and 
dismal,  and  a  man  whom  she  rightly 
conjectured  to  be  Mr.  Bagley  sitting 
disconsolately  in  one  corner  of  it. 

"  When  the  missis  is  in  one  of  her 
cleaning  moods,"  he  had  once  said  to 
Peggy,  "  wherever  you  sit,  you  are 
always  in  the  way.  I  always  try  to  get 
into  the  farthest  corner,  and  I  can't  get 
far  enough  into  it  at  that." 

He  looked  up  at  Wilifred,  and  told 
her  to  bring  him  his  boots,  for  it  was 
time  he  should  get  the  colt  in  from  the 
pasture. 

In  a  field  at  the  side  of  the  house, 
Wilifred  had  noticed  a  pretty  little  bay 
horse.  Even  in  her  excitement,  she 
had  stopped  a  moment  to  admire  it,  and 
now,  as  Mr.  Bagley  seemed  reluctant  to 
leave  his  corner,  she  volunteered  to  go 
for  the  colt  herself. 
9 


130      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  You  go  ?  That 's  a  good  one,"  he 
said.  "  You  would  faint  away,  if  he  was 
to  come  within  a  rod  of  you." 

"  Oh,  indeed  I  would  n't !  "  protested 
Wilifred.     "  Do  let  me  go." 

"  Don't  be  a  silly,  Peg*.  Maloney 
would  bring  him  in  for  me  ;  but  that 
colt  won't  come  anear  any  one  but  me. 
You  know  you  could  n't  catch  him." 

"Peggy!  lor',  I  should  think  not," 
said  Mrs.  Bagley,  who  was  now  wiping 
her  hands  on  the  kitchen  roller.  "  I 
did  n't  tell  you,  'Lish,  that  Dr.  Moran 
has  been  here  again,  and  has  offered  to 
send  her  off  somewhere  to  boardin' 
school.  He  takes  a  deal  of  interest  in 
Peg,  don't  he  ?  " 

Wilifred's  heart  gave  a  terrible  thump. 
Suppose  that,  before  she  could  change 
places  with  Peggy  again,  she  would 
be  whisked  away  to   a  boarding-school, 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         131 

where  there  would  be  no  chance  at  all 
of  escape.  But  from  Mrs.  Bagley's 
next  words  it  seemed  there  was  no  fear 
of  such  a  catastrophe. 

"  I  told  him,"  she  went  on,  "  that  I 
took  the  child  from  the  'sylum  to  wait 
on  me,  an'  not  to  make  a  fine  lady  of. 
I  promised  'em  there  that  she  would  be 
brought  up  to  work,  an'  I  aint  goin' 
back  on  my  word.  Yes,  Peggy  has  got 
to  work ;  but  as  for  gittin'  in  the  colt,  I 
guess  she  can't  do  that." 

"  Somebody  beside  me  '11  have  to  do 
it,"  answered  her  husband,  throwing 
down  his  boot  with  a  groan,  and  hold- 
ing his  foot  out  straight  before  him. 
"  Look  at  that  bunion,  will  you  ?  I 
can't  get  a  boot  over  that.  She  will 
have  to  do  it,  or  you  will." 

"  Well  I  won't,  you  know,"  said  Mrs. 
Bagley.     "  Peggy,  tell  Maloney  that  Mr. 


132      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Bagley  can't  get  his  boot  on,  and  he 
will  have  to  get  the  colt  in.  He  is 
standing  right  in  the  door  of  the  stable." 

Wilifred  ran  out  and  hailed  the  man 
as  if  she  had  known  him  all  her  life. 

"  Maloney,"  she  said,  "  Mr.  Bagley 
wants  you  to  go  for  the  colt.  But  he 
won't  let  you  catch  him,  and  I  think 
you  had  better  let   me  go." 

"  You,  Peggy  ?  Sure,  you  'd  be 
afraid  av  the  shadder  av  the  baste,  let 
alone  the  rale  animal." 

Although  he  declared  it  would  be 
useless  for  either  of  them  to  go,  he  got 
a  box  of  oats  from  the  stable,  and  for 
some  time  Wilifred  watched  him  run 
hither  and  thither,  at  the  sport  of  the 
wilful  colt. 

"  I  'd  like  to  break  the  bones  av  him," 
Maloney  grumbled,  coming  back  to  the 
bars  where  the  little  girl  stood.     "  Whin 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.        133 

you  git  up  to  him,  sure  he 's  niver 
there." 

Wilifred  took  the  oats,  and,  slipping 
past  him,  walked  slowly  towards  the 
colt,  who  was  now  standing  at  the  op- 
posite end  of  the  enclosure,  watching 
Maloney.  She  held  out  her  hand  and 
talked  to  him,  paying  no  attention  to 
Mr.  Bagley,  who  stood  with  one  boot 
on  in  the  doorway,  calling  to  her. 

"  Come  back  here,  Peggy,  you  can't 
catch  him.' 

Right  in  the  face  of  this  declaration, 
the  pretty  colt,  with  a  toss  of  his  head, 
came  trotting  up  to  the  child,  and  after 
a  moment,  to  the  amazement  of  the 
two  men,  followed  her  along  to  the 
bars. 

"  She  aint  even  got  a  halter  on  him," 
murmured  Maloney. 

Smiling    in    triumph,  with  her  hand 


134      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

just  laid  on  his  neck,  Wilifred  brought 
the  pretty  creature  up  to  him. 

"  You  have  only  to  be  good  and  gen- 
tle with  him,"  she  said.  "  There  now, 
see  how  you  have  jerked  his  head.  He 
will  remember  that  to-morrow  night 
when  you  try  to  get  him   in." 

"  To-morrow  night  you  will  have 
to  get  him  in,"  said  Mr.  Bagley.  "  To 
think  how  you  have  played  scarey  all 
this  time !  " 

"  She  is  sly  ;  that 's  what 's  the  matter 
with  Peggy,"  Mrs.  Bagley,  who  had 
previously  joined  the  group,  now  broke 
in.  "  She  pretends  to  be  as  meek 
as  a  lamb,  but  she  is  foxy.  Lor',  I 
would  n't  trust  her." 

The  three  elder  persons  looked 
curiously  at  the  child,  and  Maloney 
laughed. 

"  You  're  a  'cute  one,"  he  said. 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         135 

Mrs.  Bagley  now  declared  that  she 
should  go  at  once  to  her  work,  All 
the  young  men  had  come  in,  she 
said,  and  they  would  soon  be  calling 
for  lights. 

Wilifred  went  into  the  hall,  where,  as 
Peggy  had  told  her,  she  found  a  row  of 
lamps  and  a  big  pile  of  towels.  Taking 
some  of  these,  she  went  up-stairs  and 
boldly  knocked  at  one  of  the  doors. 

A  voice  cried,  "  Come  in,"  and,  enter- 
ing the  room,  she  saw  Mr.  Bolander 
seated  at  a  table. 

"  Well,  chicken,  you  are  late  to-night. 
Why  did  n't  you  come  for  your  les- 
sons ?  "  he  asked  ;  and  then,  looking  up, 
he  suddenly  ejaculated,  "  Ton  my  word, 
that  little  sister  of  Moran's  looks  more 
like  you,  Peggy,  than  you  do  like 
yourself,  so  to  speak.  It 's  a  wonder- 
ful likeness.     I  do  believe,  if   you  were 


136      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

dressed  in  her  clothes,  you  could  pass 
yourself  off  to  Dr.  Moran  as  his  own 
child." 

"  I  think  so  too,"  said  Wilifred. 

"Have  you  seen  her?"  asked  Mr. 
Bolander.  "  Have  you  ever  seen  her, 
Peggy  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,"  answered  Wilifred,  "  I 
have." 

"  And  what  did  you  think  of  the  like- 
ness. Was  it  not  like  looking  at  your- 
self in  the  glass  ?  " 

Wilifred  nodded.  If  she  tried  to 
speak,  she  was  sure  she  would  laugh. 

"  Well,  Miss  Wilifred  is  a  lucky  little 
damsel.  What,  I  wonder,  would  she 
say  to  such  a  life  as  yours,  Peggy  ?  " 

"  She  would  say  it  is  horrid,  —  per- 
fectly horrid,"  cried  Wilifred,  hotly. 
"  And  it  is  n't  fair." 

"  So  it  is  n't,"  said   Bolander,  drawing 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         137 

the  child  up  to  him  and  kissing  her,  for 
he  thought  that  some  especially  cruel 
thing  must  have  happened  that  day  to 
draw  such  an  expression  of  discontent 
from  the  patient  little  soul.  "  Well, 
never  mind,  little  one,"  he  went  on  con- 
solingly, "  I  doubt  if  she  makes  as 
much  of  her  opportunities  as  you  do 
of  yours." 

"  She  does  n't,  I  am  sure  she  does 
n't,"  cried  poor  Wilifred,  looking  solemn 
enough,  as  she  thought  of  her  wasted 
privileges,  and  contrasted  her  idle  life 
with  the  usefulness  of  Peggy's. 

"  Well,  my  little  Cinderalla,  your 
time  is  coming  yet.  We  self-made  peo- 
ple have  to  make  the  most  of  our 
chances,  —  that  \s  all.  We  are  poor 
and  lowly  at  present,  Peg,  but  some 
time  we  may  be  at  the  top  of  the 
heap." 


138      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Slavey !  slavey !  "  cried  a  voice  at 
that  moment  in  the  hall. 

"  There  's  a  nice  young  gentleman  in  the  next  door. 
Towels  are  wanted  at  number  forty-four." 

hummed  Bolander.  "  That 's  Fullerton 
calling  you." 

"  Me  ?  "  exclaimed  Wilifred  ;  —  and 
then,  recollecting  her  part,  she  added, 
"  Why,  yes,  of  course,"  and  ran  into 
the  hall. 

A  young  man  with  a  pitcher  in  his 
hand  immediately  hailed  her  with  the 
order,  "  Here,  you  slavey.  I  want  you 
to  cut  down  stairs  and  bring  me  some 
hot  water." 

Mr.  Fullerton  was  looking  distractedly 
over  the  numerous  articles  on  his  table 
when  Wilifred,  after  many  difficulties, 
succeeded  in  getting  what  he  wanted. 
Evidently  something  was  missing. 

"  Look  here,  Peggy,"  he  said,  on  see- 


LOOK    HERE,    PEGGY,"    HE    SAID,    "  I    BELIEVE    YOU    HAVE    BEEN 
MEDDLING    WITH    MY    PAPERS." 


140     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

ing  the  child,  "  I  believe  you  have  been 
meddling  with  my  papers." 

"  Oh  !  "  cried  Wilifred,  "  what  'cute, 
what  lovely  little  dogs  these  are.  What 
kind  of  dogs  are  they  ?  " 

"  Now,  see  here,  that 's  just  too  thin," 
said  the  suspicious  Fullerton.  "  You 
have  pretended  to  be  afraid  of  those 
dogs  too  long  to  take  this  sudden  inter- 
est in  'em.  You  are  trying  to  throw 
me  off  the  scent,  but  I  will  have  an 
answer.  Now  what  have  you  done  with 
that  paper  ?  " 

"  I  have  n't  touched  it.  What  pretty 
brown  eyes  this  dog  has,  and  how  affec- 
tionate his  little  brother  is !  See,  he  is 
kissing  my  hand." 

Wilifred  had  flung  herself  down  up- 
on the  floor,  and  had  both  dogs  in 
her  lap ;  but  suddenly  she  felt  herself 
lifted  up   by  no  very  gentle  hand,  and 


A   Princess  in  Disguise.         141 

deposited  at  the  other  end  of  the  room 
by  the  wall,  while  Fullerton,  completely 
mastered  by  his  irritation,  stood  in  front 
of  her. 

"  You  imp,"  he  cried,  "  I  have  a  mind 
to  break  your  impudent  little  head." 

"  If  you  touch  me,  I  '11  tell  papa,  and 
he  will  have  you  punished,"  cried  Wili- 
fred  with  flaming  cheeks. 

"  Your  papa  indeed  !  I  suppose  you 
mean  old  Bagley.  If  you  don't  want  to 
get  yourself  into  trouble  tell  me  directly 
what  you  have  done  with  that  paper." 

But  Wilifred  was  too  angry  to  an- 
swer. "  Let  me  go,"  she  screamed. 
"  Mrs.  Bagley !  Mrs.  Bagley  !  Mrs.  Bag- 
ley  ! " 

There  was  a  scuffle  of  feet  in  the  hall, 
and  immediately  the  room  was  filled 
with  young  men. 

"  The    slavey    is    rantankarous,    is  n't 


142      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

she  ?  "  cried  one.  "  What 's  the  matter, 
Fullerton  ?  " 

While  Mr.  Bolander's  voice  called 
angrily  out,  "  Do  leave  that  poor  child 
alone.     What  has  she  done?" 

"  She  has  been  meddling  with  my 
papers.  The  first  page  of  my  thesis 
is  n't  here.  And  she  won't  deign  to 
answer  a  civil  question." 

"  I  suppose,  as  usual,  you  have  fright- 
ened her  out  of  her  wits.  The  child  is 
very  timid.  Let  me  have  her;  she  will 
tell  me,"  said  Bolander. 

But  Fullerton  only  laughed  sarcasti- 
cally, "  She  looks  timid,  does  n't  she  ?  " 

Every  eye  turned  upon  Wilifred,  who 
was  standing  with  clenched  fists  and 
flaming  cheeks,  glaring  at  Fullerton. 

"  Upon  my  word,  she  looks  like  a 
young  tiger,"  one  young  man  said  to 
another.  "  I  did  n't  think  the  slavey 
had  so  much  spirit." 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         143 

None  of  them,  however,  were  as  sur- 
prised at  this  sudden  exhibition  of  tem- 
per on  the  part  of  the  usually  meek 
slavey,  as  Bolander,  who  nevertheless 
tried  his  best  to  defend  her. 

"  What  do  you  suppose  the  child 
wants  of  your  thesis  ?  It 's  absurd  to 
suspect  her  of  taking  it." 

"  I  don't  suspect  her  of  taking  it," 
Fullerton  answered,  "  but  I  think  it  's 
quite  likely  she  has  thrown  it  away, 
thinking  it  no  good,  though  I  Ve  told 
her  no  end  of  times  never  to  touch  the 
things  on  my  table.  Do  be  reasonable, 
Bolander,  and  stand  back,  for  she  has 
got  to  answer  me.  Now,  Peggy,  you 
imp,  do  you  know  what  has  become  of 
that  paper?  " 

Poor  Wilifred  could  make  but  one 
answer  to  all  questions.  How  could 
she  tell  what  had  become  of  the  young 


144      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

man's  property  ?  But  her  eyes  were 
still  angry,  and  Fullerton  believed  she 
knew  more  than  she  would  confess,  and 
all  Mr.  Bolander's  eloquence  could  not 
convince  him  to  the  contrary.  He  de- 
clared he  would  appeal  to  Mrs.  Bagley 
herself,  who  should  make  her  obdurate 
slavey  speak. 

Much  perplexed,  Mr.  Bolander  took 
the  child  away.  Sitting  down  in  his 
own  room,  he  drew  her  in  front  of  him, 
and  looked  at  her  closely. 

"  Peggy,  my  little  girl,"  he  said, 
"what's  come  over  you?  I've  seen 
you  bear  no  end  of  hard  usage  with  the 
gentle  patience  of  a  lady ;  but  to-day 
you  flared  up  at  nothing  at  all,  like  a 
regular  little  vixen.  I  hope  you  won't 
let  your  temper  be  ruffled  up  in  that 
ugly  shape  any  more.  'Pon  my  word, 
you  were  not  like  yourself." 


A  Princess  in  Disguise.         145 

At  this,  Wilifred  struggled  a  little  to 
free  herself,  but   Bolander  held  her  fast. 

"  Stand  still  a  bit,"  he  said,  "  I  want 
to  look  at  you,  and  make  sure  you 
really  are  my  gentle  Peg.  When  you 
were  fizzing  out  there  at  Fullerton  like 
a  little  cat,  it  seemed  as  if  some  other 
child  must  be  standing  in  your  place." 

This  was  certainly  very  trying  to 
Wilifred,  who  felt  more  and  more  un- 
comfortable under  Mr.  Boiander's  clear, 
searching  eyes.  She  took  refuge  in 
silence,  and  as  soon  as  she  could  left 
the  room. 

What  he  had  said,  however,  sank 
deep  into  her  heart,  for  she  was 
ashamed  that  Peggy,  who  had  never 
had  any  training  at  all,  behaved  so 
much  more  like  a  lady  than  herself, 
who  had  enjoyed  so  many  advantages. 
Beside,  she  did  not  like  that  word  vixen, 


146     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

and  she  did  not  mean  ever  again  to 
have  it  truthfully  applied  to  herself. 

In  the  evening,  when  the  dish-towels 
were  given  her  to  hem,  Wilifred  tried  to 
work  in  the  same  meek  and  patient 
spirit  in  which  she  thought  Peggy's 
tasks  were  performed.  The  result  was 
best  known  to  herself ;  but  when  bed- 
time came  and  she  folded  her  work  and 
put  it  away,  it  was  with  a  feeling  of 
thankfulness  that  the  day  had  really 
come  to  an  end. 

The  little  girl,  with  a  lump  in  her 
throat,  groped  her  way  up  the  strange 
stairs  that  led  to  the  attic.  She  did  not 
remember  having  ever  in  her  life  gone 
to  bed  without  a  good  night  kiss,  and 
she  thought  she  would  not  be  able  to 
sleep  for  the  want  of  it.  Peggy's  room 
was  easily  found,  for  the  door  stood 
open,  showing   the   cot  under  the  sky- 


A  Pr i? i cess  in  Disguise.         147 

light,  and  she  flung  herself  on  the  bed 
with  the  reflection  that  she  could  not 
remain  another  day  in  Peggy's  place. 

It  was  late  before  sleep  closed  those 
wide,  tired  eyes  of  Wilifred.  She  tossed 
from  side  to  side,  grieving  over  Peg- 
gy's hard  lot  in  life,  and  wondering 
if  there  could  not  be  some  easier  way 
than  this  of  helping  her. 


148      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

A    LITTLE    INTERLOPER. 

'"THE  truth  is,"  said  Dr.  Moran  to 
his  wife,  "  Wilifred  is  not  well. 
The  idea  of  her  being  so  upset  because 
the  dogs  jumped  on  her !  Why,  they 
are   always   jumping  on   her." 

"  I  don't  wonder  at  all,"  answered 
Wilifred's  mamma.  "  I  saw  you  as  you 
drove  up  to  the  house,  and  the  moment 
she  got  out  of  the  carriage  the  whole 
pack  flew  at  her,  and  almost  knocked 
her  down.  I  'm  sure  it  would  have 
made   me    very    nervous." 

"  Of  course ;  but  Wilifred's  nerves 
are  those  of  a  strong,  healthy  child.     It 


A  Little  Interloper.  149 

usually  takes  a  great  deal  to  upset  them. 
Then  she  cried,"  went  on  the  Doctor, 
gravely.  "  You  know  how  seldom  that 
happens ;  and  when  I  took  her  up,  she 
was  trembling  like  a  leaf,  so  I  carried 
her  up  to  her  room  and  told  her  to  lie 
down  for  an  hour.  It  was  not  alto- 
gether the  dogs,  either,  for  she  was  not 
like  herself  before  they  jumped  en  her. 
I  noticed  as  we  were  driving  home  that 
she  seemed  languid,  and  I  could  hardly 
get  a  word  out  of  her.  Oueer  she 
should  run  down  so  all  of  a  sudden." 

"  I  will  send  Estelle  for  her  by  and 
by,  and  give  her  some  quinine,"  Mrs. 
Moran  said.  "  She  is  a  little  run  down, 
perhaps,  but  it 's  nothing  to  worry 
about." 

When  the  dogs  had  flung  themselves 
upon  Peggy,  under  the  delusion,  no 
doubt,  that  they  were  welcoming  their 


150      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

little  mistress  home,  she  had  received  a 
great  shock.  Over  and  over  again  dur- 
ing the  drive  to  Delhaven  she  had  re- 
pented of  having  consented  to  Wilifred's 
plan.  Wilifred  herself  had  been  too 
busily  occupied  in  devising  a  scheme 
to  give  happiness  to  Peggy,  to  realize 
how  much  deceit  lay  in  it ;  but  Peggy's 
tender  conscience  gave  her  no  rest  from 
its  sharp  stings. 

As  she  stepped  out  of  the  carriage  at 
Wilifred's  beautiful  home,  she  was  a 
very  miserable  child,  and  the  terror  of 
the  dogs,  added  to  all  the  other  uncom- 
fortable feelings,  completely  unnerved 
her ;  so  that,  losing  all  control  of  her- 
self, she  burst  into  a  storm  of  tears. 

It  was  anything  but  reassuring  to 
Peggy  to  be  caught  up  in  the  Doctor's 
arms,  although  in  the  tenderest  way, 
and  carried   up-stairs.      It  was    not   un- 


A  Little  Interlopci'.  151 

til  she  had  been  deposited  upon  Wili- 
fred's  bed,  and  the  Doctor  had  left  her, 
that  she  stopped  trembling  and  wiped 
her  eyes. 

She  had  been  bidden  to  lie  perfectly 
quiet  for  an  hour,  and  Peggy  was  too 
obedient  to  get  up,  but  she  looked 
around  the  room  with  a  great  deal  of 
interest.  What  a  grateful  girl  the  right- 
ful  owner  of  this  pretty  room  must  be  ! 
No  wonder  her  eyes  had  that  bright, 
happy  look  in  them.  No  wonder  she 
was   good   and  generous. 

There  was  the  oriel  window,  even 
prettier  than  she  had  fancied  it,  and 
there  were  books,  oh  !  ever  so  many 
books,  which  of  themselves  would  make 
any  room  delightful  to  Peggy ;  but 
nevertheless  heartily  did  she  wish  that 
she  were  in  the  closet  with  the  skylight, 
where  she  rightfully  belonged. 


152      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

When  Estelle,  Mrs.  Moran's  French 
maid,  tapped  at  the  door,  she  was  so 
long  in  mustering  courage  to  bid  her 
enter,  that  the  girl  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Miss  Wilifred  had  fallen 
asleep,  and  was  just  going  away,  when 
Peggy's  timid  "  Come  in  "  was  heard. 

Estelle  had  come  to  dress  her  for 
dinner,  and  many  an  exclamation  she 
uttered  at  the  tangled  condition  of  the 
child's  bright  locks,  and  the  unusual 
roughness  of  her  hands ;  but  as  these 
were  made  in  French,  Peggy  was 
spared    any   distress    on    that    score. 

Peggy  made  her  first  acquaintance 
that  day  with  various  devices  of  the 
toilet.  When  the  process  was  over, 
Estelle  led  her  into  another  room,  and 
left  her. 

Here  the  light  was  so  subdued  by  the 
window    hangings     that     Peggy    hardly 


HOW    DO    YOU    FEEL    NOW,    DEAR  ?  "    ASKED    MRS.   MORAN,    ANXIOUSLY. 


1 54      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

distinguished  a  figure  lying  upon  the 
bed,  until  a  soft  voice  said  to  her,  "  Is 
that  vou,  darling  ?  Come  here  to 
mamma." 

For  a  moment  Peggy  was  undecided 
whether  to  obey  the  voice,  or  to  run 
away  and  hide  herself ;  but  she  finally 
went  up  to  the  side  of  the  bed,  and 
looked  down  on  the  sweet  face  upOn 
the  pillow.  No  child  would  ever  be 
afraid  of  Mrs.  Moran,  with  her  tender 
eyes  and  gentle  voice,  and  Peggy  let 
herself  be  drawn  down  beside  her  on 
the  bed,  and  her  heart  began  to  ache 
with  pity  for  herself  that  she  too  had 
not  a  mother. 

"  How  do  you  feel  now,  dear?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Moran,  anxiously.  "  Are  you 
rested  ?  " 

Now  Peggy,  as  it  seemed  to  her,  was 
never  so  tired  in  her  life  as  at  this  mo- 


A   Little  Interlope?'.  1 5  5 

ment,  and,  creeping  into  the  mother 
arms  that  were  held  out  to  her,  began 
to  cry.  It  was  such  a  wonderful  thing 
to  be  pitied  and  petted,  instead  of 
scolded.  It  was  so  nice  to  have  any 
one  seem  to  care  that  she  was  tired, 
and  speak  soft  and  loving  words  to  her. 
To  be  sure  they  were  meant  for  Wili- 
fred,  but  sore  little  Peggy  listened,  and 
let  herself  be  comforted  by  them. 

By  and  by,  she  stopped  sobbing  alto- 
gether, and  lay  with  a  soft,  contented 
smile,  listening  to  Mrs.  Moran,  who  was 
trying  to  amuse  her.  She  did  not  un- 
derstand what  was  said.  She  had  never 
heard  before  of  Uncle  Jack,  who  it  seems 
had  written  her  a  letter  ;  or  of  Cousin 
Morgan,  who  was  in  England  ;  or  Janey 
Wells,  who  was  learning  to  play  tennis  ; 
but  she  liked  the  cooing,  tender  voice, 
and  for  the  time  felt  very  happy. 


156      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Presently  Estelle  came  in,  and  an- 
nounced that  dinner  was  ready. 

"  Then,  darling,  you  must  go,"  said 
Mrs.  Moran.  "  Papa  will  be  waiting 
for  you." 

At  the  mention  of  the  Doctor,  Peggy 
began  trembling  again.  She  thought 
she  would  much  rather  not  have  any 
dinner  than  to  eat  it  in  his  company. 
"Aren't  you  coming,  too?"  she  asked. 

"  Why,  you  know  I  seldom  do,"  was 
the  answer.  "  I  shall  take  mine  here  as 
usual." 

"  I  wish  I  could  have  my  dinner  with 
you,"  said  Peggy,  in  her  plaintive  tone. 

Now  the  way  Peggy  clung  to  her, 
so  different  from  the  independence  of 
Wilifred,  went  straight  to  Mrs.  Moran's 
heart.  Wilifred  had  never  been  known 
to  wish  to  eat  dinner  in  this  darkened 
chamber   in  her  company,  and   the   ex- 


A   Little  Interloper.  157 

,  pressed  desire  of  Peggy  to  do  so  pleased 
and  astonished  her. 

Accordingly  dinner  for  two  was  sent 
up,  and,  the  servant  being  dismissed, 
Peggy  in  her  pretty,  patient  way,  waited 
on  Mrs.  Moran,  who  appreciated  each 
little  service,  the  only  flaw  in  her  hap- 
piness being  Peggy's  utter  want  of 
appetite. 

"  It  is  so  strange,  dear,  that  you  can 
eat  nothing,"  she  said.  "  What  can  be 
the  matter  with  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  aint  hungry,  that 's  all,"  an- 
swered Peggy. 

"Don't  say  aint.  It's  ungrammat- 
ical." 

"  I  know  it."  cried  Peggy.  "  Mr.  Bo- 
lander  told  me  that." 

"  Mr.  Bolander.     Why,  who  is  he  ?  " 

"  WTell,  he  's  —  er  —  Mr.  Bolander," 
faltered  Peggy,  realizing  what  she  had 
said. 


158      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Where  did  you  see  him,  and  how 
did  he  happen  to  correct  your  gram- 
mar ? "  was  the  natural  inquiry. 

Peggy  might  have  answered  that  Mr. 
Bolander  had  been  to  Delhaven  that 
day,  for  so  Wilifred  had  told  her ;  but 
she  was  not  practised  in  deceit,  the  use 
of  which  was  now  making  her  thor- 
oughly uncomfortable,  and  she  longed 
for  courage  to  confess  the  truth  and  end 
it  all.  "  I  have  seen  him  in  the  village," 
she  stammered.  "  He  lives  at  the  big 
lodging-house  there." 

"  You  ought  not  to  go  there.  You 
know  your  papa  has  forbidden  it,  for  he 
wishes  you  to  keep  away  from  that  little 
girl  who  is  said  to  look  so  much  like 
you.  Already  you  have  caught  a  very 
inelegant  way  of  expressing  yourself. 
Promise  me,  Wilifred,  that  you  will  re- 
member our  wish." 


A   Little  Interloper.  159 

Poor  Peggy  was  wondering  how  she 
could  promise  to  keep  away  from  her- 
self, when  Estelle  came  in  and  inter- 
rupted  the   converstion. 

She  spent  the  whole  of  the  evening 
in  Mrs.  Moran's  room,  refusing  to  leave 
her,  declaring  she  was  happier  there 
than  she  would  be  elsewhere.  Having 
spent  so  many  evenings  alone,  Mrs. 
Moran  was  cheered  by  the  little  girl's 
company.  She  petted  Peggy,  —  who, 
unlike  her  sister,  enjoyed  being  made 
a  baby  of,  —  with  the  reflection  that,  as 
Wilifred  grew  older,  she  grew  more  af- 
fectionate, and  that  she  would  yet  be  a 
comfort  to  her. 

Presently  the  Doctor  joined  them. 
Lying  beside  the  mother,  with  her  hand 
in  hers,  Peo-o-v  was  not  afraid  ;  but  when, 
sitting  down  upon  the  edge  of  the  bed, 
he  drew  her  over    to  him,  putting   his 


160      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

hand  on  her  forehead  and  feeling  her 
pulse,  all   the   old  fear  came  back. 

"  Her  head  is  hot,  her  pulse  too  fast, 
and  her  heart  beats  like  a  trip-hammer," 
he  announnced,  unconscious  that  he 
himself  was  the  cause  of  this  unhealthy 
excitement.  "  It 's  very  strange  the 
dogs  should  have  given  her  such  a 
shock." 

"  They  must  be  kept  in  the  stable  in 
future,"  Mrs.  Mo  ran  said,  with  a  decis- 
ion that  pleased  Peggy.  "  This  must 
never  happen  again." 

At  about  the  same  hour  that  Wilifred 
folded  away  her  dish-towels,  Peggy,  hav- 
ing been  tenderly  kissed  by  both  par- 
ents, was  carried  off  for  a  warm  bath 
and  put  to  bed. 

In  the  morning  she  slept  late,  and 
when  in  some  anxiety  Mrs.  Moran  went 
to  call  her  she  found  her  cheeks  flushed, 


A   Little  Interloper.  161 

her  head  hot,  and  feeling  too  tired  to 
get  out  of  bed.  The  little  girl  had  cried 
herself  to  sleep,  miserably  wishing  her- 
self back  in  Mrs.  Bagley's  closet,  and 
was  really  ill,  her  over-tasked  body 
at  last  giving  out  under  this  mental 
strain. 

Mrs.  Moran  advised  her  to  lie  quietly 
in  bed  for  the  rest  of  the  morning ;  but 
Peggy  was  fearful  of  losing  a  chance  to 
escape  from  her  uncomfortable  position, 
and  begged  to  get  up.  She  hoped  that 
in  the  bright  morning  lio'ht  the  discov- 
ery  would  be  made  that  she  was  not 
Wilifred,  but  a  poor  little  interloper, 
who  would  then  be  released  from  her 
misery.  But  strangely  enough,  when 
there  seemed  any  actual  chance  of  this, 
her  heart  beat  so  fast  with  fear  that  she 
did  all  she  could  to  prevent  it ;  and  as 
any    strangeness    in    her    behavior  was 


1 62      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

attributed  to  her  evident  illness,  no  such 
discovery  was  made. 

The  Doctor  and  his  two  sons  were 
already  at  the  table  when  Peggy  en- 
tered the  breakfast-room,  and  all  three 
rose  and  gave   her  a  morning  kiss. 

"  I  declare  she  does  n't  look  well," 
said  Randolph,  trying  to  get  a  good 
look  at  her  downcast  face.  "  Actually 
pale.  It  is  n't  often  that  Wilifred  loses 
her  color." 

"  And  her  spirits,"  added  Arthur. 
"  She 's  as  grave  as  a  deacon,  this 
morning." 

Peggy  was  thankful  when  the  conver- 
sation was  turned  from  herself.  For  a 
time  it  ran  upon  matters  in  which  she 
took  no  interest,  but  at  length  her  at- 
tention was  claimed  by  a  remark  of 
Randolph's. 

"  You  remember  Bolander,  don't  you, 


A   Little  Interloper.  163 

father?  That  fine  fellow  I  told  you  of 
who  is  having  such  a  grind  to  get 
through  college.  Well,  he  was  sus- 
pended   last    night." 

"  So  ? "  said  the  Doctor,  who  had 
caught   this    exclamation    in    Germany. 

"  They  say  he  sent  an  awfully  insult- 
ing paper  in  place  of  his  thesis,"  said 
Arthur.  "  I  don't  understand  how  he 
ever  came  to  do  it,  for  he  does  n't  seem 
to  be  that  sort  of  a  fellow.  He  s  tre- 
mendously ambitious,  you  know,  and 
this  will  be  such  a   set-back." 

"  But  he  denies  having  written  the 
paper,  and  declares  it  must  have  been 
substituted  by  somebody  for  the  thesis 
he  did  write,"  said  Randolph.  "  If  he 
can  prove  this,  it  will  all  be  made  right, 
but  the  paper  was  signed  with  his  name, 
and  things  look  black  for  him.  Halloo, 
Wilifred,  what's  the  matter?  " 


164      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Poor  Peggy  had  listened  in  horror  to 
the  foregoing  conversation,  and  now,  in 
her  grief  for  her  friend,  and  despair  at 
her  own  helpless  situation,  burst  into 
tears. 

Bolander's  fate  was  instantly  forgotten 
in  this  distress  in  the  family  circle.  The 
Doctor  and  both  boys  endeavored  to 
comfort  the  tearful  Peggy,  who  refused 
to  be  comforted,  and  was  finally  carried 
to  Mrs.  Moran. 

"It's  my  opinion  Will  is  going  to 
have  a  fever,  or  something.  Who  ever 
heard  of  her  cutting  up  in  this  style 
before  ?  She  is  uncommon  queer  this 
morning,"  —  she  heard  Arthur  say,  as 
she  was  being  borne  out  of  the  room 
by  the  astonished  Doctor. 

Left  with  Mrs.  Moran,  Peggy  soon 
recovered  herself,  and  presently  lay 
quietly  on  the  bed,  while  her  anxious 


A   Little  Interloper.  165 

nurse  found  a  book  and  read  a  lively 
tale  to  cheer  her.  But  Peggy's  mind 
was  too  much  occupied  by  a  story  of 
her  own  to  listen.  She  was  thinking  of 
her  poor  chum,  and  of  the  trick  Mr. 
Fullerton  had  played  upon  him  ;  for  it 
was  clear  enough  now  to  Peggy  what 
he  had  been  doing  that  evening  in  Mr. 
Bolander's  room.  The  puzzling  ques- 
tion was  how  a  knowledge  of  Fuller- 
ton's  act  should  be  conveyed  to  the 
faculty,  who  supposed  themselves  in- 
sulted by  her  poor  righteous  Bolander. 
She  stood  in  much  awe  of  those  disrni- 
taries,  but  felt,  if  she  were  only  once 
more  the  little  servant  of  Mrs.  Bagley, 
she  could  face  them  all.  As  it  was, 
something  must  be  done,  —  even  Peggy 
saw  that. 

When  the   Doctor  came  in  and  said 
that  William,  the  coachman,  was  going 


1 66      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

to  the  harness  shop  in  town,  and  she 
might,  if  she  wished,  go  with  him,  she 
hailed  with  delight  the  opportunity  of 
leaving  Delhaven,  with  its  possible 
chance  of  seeing  Wilifred.  Dr.  Moran 
said  that  he  also  was  going  to  the  town, 
but  that  he  might  be  obliged  to  stay 
there  some  time,  so  that  she  had  better 
go  with  William.  Peggy  made  no  ob- 
jection to  this  plan. 

As  she  drove  into  the  town,  she 
looked  with  strange  interest  at  each  fa- 
miliar feature.  It  seemed  as  if  a  long 
time  must  have  passed  since  she  had 
taken  that  walk  to  the  spot  where 
the  violets  grew.  When  Mrs.  Bagley's 
lodsdnor-house  was  reached,  she  almost 
fell  out  of  the  carriage  in  her  desire  to 
see  what  was  going  on  there.  After 
all,  there  was  nothing  more  interesting 
to  be  seen  than  the  slouchy  figure  of 


A   Little  Interloper.  167 

Maloney,  who  as  usual  was  standing  in 
the  doorway  of  the  stable. 

Peggy  caught  the  familiar  sound  of 
Mrs.  Bagley's  voice  raised  in  scolding. 
The  voice  came  from  the  kitchen,  and 
there  was  not  much  doubt  that  Wilifred 
was  the  victim. 

"  Oh  dear !  that 's  my  scolding," 
thought  Peggy,  enviously.  "  I  ought 
to  be  there  to  get  it." 

William's  errand  occupied  but  a  few 
moments,  and  they  were  soon  upon 
their  homeward  way.  When  again  they 
approached  the  lodging-house,  Peggy 
asked   him  to   drive  by  very  slowly. 

"  That 's  Barbarina,"  he  said,  pointing 
with  his  whip  at  a  horse  hitched  to  the 
post  in  front  of  Mrs.  Bagley's  door. 
"  Your  father  must  be  in  there,  miss." 

Peggy  wondered  what  the  Doctor 
could   possibly  wish   at   Mrs.    Bagley's, 


1 68      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

but  it  did  not  seem  as  if  it  could  be  any- 
thing that  concerned  herself.  Wilifred 
was  not  in  sight,  and  she  had  seen  noth- 
ing of  Mr.  Bolander,  nor  had  anything 
happened  as  she  had  hoped.  She  put 
her  ringers  on  her  eyelids  to  keep  the 
tears  back,  and  tried  to  think  what  she 
could  do. 

There  were  two  roads  that  led  from 
the  town  to  Delhaven.  The  one  usually 
taken  was  the  shorter,  on  which  the  vio- 
lets grew;  but  now  William  turned  into 
the  longer  road.  Peggy's  mind  was  so 
busy  with  her  own  thoughts  that  at  first 
she  did  not  notice  where  they  were  go- 
ing ;  but  the  moment  she  did,  it  oc- 
curred to  her  that  they  would  pass  by 
Professor  Whitby's  house.  Her  heart 
thumped  with  the  knowledge  that  this 
was  a  chance  of  giving  him  the  infor- 
mation that  burdened  her. 


A  Little  Interloper.  169 

Before  she  had  time  to  realize  the  au- 
dacity of  this  plan,  the  house  was  in 
sight,  and  she  had  told  William  to  stop 
there.  Then  Peggy  got  out  and  walked 
as  fast  as  she  could  on  her  trembling 
little  legs  to  the  door. 

The  Professor's  daughter,  Miss  Mary, 
a  young  lady  of  whom  Peggy  had  often 
heard  the  collegians  talk,  was  sitting  on 
the  piazza,  and,  when  Peggy  asked  for 
her  father,  looked  in  at  a  window, 
saying,  "  Papa,  you  've  a  visitor,  —  little 
Wilifred  Moran." 

"  Hm-m-m,"  murmured  a  voice  within. 
"  Well,  well,  bring  her  in." 

To  be  introduced  as  Wilifred  made 
Peggy's  errand  seem  more  awkward 
than  before ;  but  there  was  no  chance 
of  retreat  now,  and  beingr  led  into  the 
Professor's  presence  she  was  forced  to 
explain  it. 


i  jo     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  I  came  to  tell  you  about  Mr.  Bolan- 
der,  and  how  Mr.  Fullerton  played  a 
trick  on  him." 

The  Professor  took  off  his  glasses, 
and  peered  down  upon  the  top  of  Wili- 
f red's  hat,  which  completely  hid  Peg- 
gy's shy  face  from  view,  and  gravely 
addressed  the  ostrich  feather  on  the 
crown. 

"  If  you  really  know  anything  about 
the  matter,  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  you, 
Miss  Wilifred." 

"  My  name  is  Peggy,  and  I  'm  the 
slavey  at  Mrs.  Bagley's.  She  keeps  the 
lodging-house,  you  know,  where  Mr. 
Bolander  lives,  and  that 's  how  I  came 
to  know  anything  about  it." 

It  was  Peggy's  intention  to  explain 
the  matter  as  clearly  and  as  quickly  as 
she  could. 

"  The  slavey   at   Mrs.   Bagley's,"   re- 


A  Little  Interloper.  i  7 1 

peated  the  Professor  slowly,  looking  in- 
tently at  the  little  figure  in  the  white 
embroidered  frock  and  befeathered  hat ; 
but  happily  the  Professor's  thoughts 
were  not  upon  this  unfitting  ornament 
of  Mrs.   Bagley's  servant. 

"  That  's  what  the  young  gentlemen 
call  me,"  explained  Peggy ;  "  all  except 
Mr.  Bolander,  who  calls  me  his  chum." 

The  kind  smile  the  Professor  be- 
stowed upon  her  emboldened  Peggy, 
and  in  a  few  moments  she  had  told  all 
she  knew  of  the  affair,  and  was  on  her 
way  to  Delhaven  feeling  she  had  done 
what  she  could  to  set  matters  straight. 

"  That  little  girl  is  Wilifred  Moran," 
said  Miss  Mary,  having  coaxed  the 
whole  story  from  the  Professor.  "  I  've 
seen  her  with  the  Doctor  a  hundred 
times.  And  the  child  said  she  was 
Mrs.    Bagley's    slavey,    did    she  ?     And 


172      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

you  believed  her  ?  Slaveys  do  n't  wear 
ravishing  feathers  like  that,  papa;  if 
they  did,  who  would  n't  be   a  slavey  ? " 

"I  didn't  notice  what  the  child 
wore,"  answered  the  Professor,  with 
rather  a  crestfallen  air.  "  At  all  events, 
she  told  a  very  straight  story." 

"  I  think  't  was  a  ridiculous  story. 
The  idea  that  Mr.  Fullerton  would  do 
such  a  shabby  thing  is  nonsense.  I 
like  him  a  great  deal  better  than  little 
Bolander,  with  his  pink  cheeks  and  big 
ears." 

But  these  prejudicial  features  had 
made  no  impression  on  the  Professor  s 
mind,  while  he  distinctly  remembered 
that  the  young  man  bore  a  reputable 
character  whereas  Mr.  Fullerton  had 
been  caught  in  a  dozen  dark  deeds.  So 
he  resolved  that  he  would  send  to  Mrs. 
Bagley  and   make  inquiries  concerning 


A  Little  Interloper.  173 

this  child,  and  this  he  would  do  at 
once. 

Peggy  was  so  much  cheered  by  the 
knowledge  that  she  had  really  been  of 
service  to  Mr.  Bolander,  that,  in  spite 
of  all  other  discomforting  thoughts,  she 
was  brighter  than  she  had  been  at  any 
time  since  she  had  left  Wilifred  at  the 
cross-roads.  The  Doctor  said  that  the 
fresh  air  had  done  her  good,  and  in  the 
afternoon  he  himself  would  take  her  for 
a  Ions;  drive  with   Prince   Edward. 

"  Wilifred  is  the  only  girl  I  know 
who  would  n't  be  afraid  of  Prince  Ed- 
ward," observed  Arthur.  "  He  shies 
dreadfully  sometimes." 

This  remark  threw  poor  Peggy  into 
a  panic.  She  tried  to  console  herself 
with  the  reflection  that  there  might  yet 
be  some  escape  from  the  ordeal.  The 
Doctor  might  change  his  mind,  and  have 


1 74      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Barbarina  harnessed  instead  of  Prince 
Edward,  or  better  than  that  —  much 
better  —  Wilifred  might  come  and  re- 
lease her :  for  she  did  not  believe  that 
Wilifred  would  stay  long  with  Mrs. 
Bagley.  She  strolled  out  to  the  road, 
and,  weak  as  she  was,  walked  to  the 
spot  where  the  violets  grew,  hoping 
Wilifred  might  be  waiting  for  her  there, 
but  no  Wilifred  was  to  be  seen.  How 
she  longed  for  courage  to  present  her- 
self in  her  borrowed  plumes  to  Mrs. 
Bagley,  and  tell  her  the  awful  truth ; 
but  after  thinking  awhile  of  her  prob- 
able reception  she  walked  back  to  Del- 
haven.  The  poor  little  thing  had  not 
resolution  enough  to  extricate  herself 
from  the  situation  Wilifred's  persistence 
had  forced  her  into,  and  she  could  only 
bear  it  with  her  usual  patience. 

So  the  moments  flew  by,   and  soon 


A  Little  Interloper. 


175 


Peggy  knew  there  was  no  escape   from 
the   dreaded   drive.     Greatly  trembling. 


WATCHING   FOR    WILIFRED. 


she  allowed  herself  to  be  lifted  into   the 
buggy,  and  as  Prince  Edward  flew  over 


i  76      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

the  ground  at  what  she  thought  a 
furious  pace,  her  face  grew  whiter  and 
whiter,  and  her  heart  beat  faster  and 
faster,  till  at  last,  Prince  Edward  giving 
a  sudden  plunge,  she  cried  out  ner- 
vously, and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  get 
out  of  the  carriage. 

This  odd  behavior  took  the  Doctor 
by  surprise,  but  he  held  the  horse  in 
with  a  firm  hand,  and,  with  many  kind 
and  reassuring  words  to  Peggy,  turned 
home  again. 

He  was  now  convinced  that  the 
child  was  seriously  ill,  and  resolved  to 
take  her  immediately  to  the  sea-shore, 
hoping  the  salt  air  would  tone  her  up 
again.  Preparations  for  such  a  trip 
were  already  being  made,  which  added 
a  good  deal  to  Peggy's  worries. 

Sick  and  frightened,  the  little  girl 
clung  to  Mrs.  Moran,  trying  to  tell  her 


A  Little  Interloper.  177 

the  secret  that  burdened  her  conscience. 
The  thought  that  when  it  was  told  she 
would  never  again  lay  her  head  on  that 
gentle  breast  filled  little  Peggy  with 
bitter  sorrow. 


178      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

for  peggy's  sake. 

IF  Peggy  had  known  all  the  strange 
and  harrowing  experiences  through 
which  Wilifred  was  passing,  perhaps 
she  would  have  nerved  herself  to  con- 
fess. 

In  the  cheerful  light  of  the  bright, 
new  morning,  Wilifred  determined  to 
bear  Peggy's  burdens  awhile  longer.  It 
would  be  cruel,  she  thought,  to  bring 
her  back  to  the  drudgery  of  her  life, 
with  but  such  a  tantalizing  glimpse  into 
the  brightness  of  her  own.  A  whole 
long  merry  day,  however,  would  be 
something  to   remember,    and   Wilifred 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  1 79 

resolved  that,  no  matter  how  disagree* 
able  the  day  at  the  Bagleys'  would 
prove,  she  would  bear  it  for  Peggy's 
sake.  But  oh  how  the  hours  drac-aed ! 
By  breakfast  time  her  resolution  was  in 
constant  need  of  propping,  and  if  ever 
Mrs.  Bagley  was  justified  in  scolding,  it 
was  on  that  miserable  morning. 

"  I  declare  to  goodness  I  never  saw 
such  an  exasperatin'  young  one,"  she 
said  to  Mr.  Bagley.  "  An'  stoopid, — 
my  sakes !  Just  fancy  her  askin'  me 
where  the  kindlings  is  kep',  when  she  's 
got  'em  in  that  identical  place  in  the 
shed  every  mornin'  these  three  years. 
I  can  tell  Mr.  Bolander  education  is 
wasted  on  her.  Lor',  I  wish  he  'd  teach 
her  common  sense  instid  of  Latin." 

After  the  breakfast  dishes  were 
washed,  Wilifred  found  that  she  had 
work  to  do  up-stairs.      It  was  the  time 


180     The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

the  young  men's  rooms  were  put  in 
order,  and  she  followed  Mrs.  Bagley 
about,  helping  in  various  ways.  Pres- 
ently she  was  left  with  a  dust-pan  and 
brush  to  sweep  down   the  stairs. 

It  was  then,  when  Mrs.  Bagley  had 
departed  to  the  lower  regions,  that  Mr, 
Bolander  called  her.  "  Come  in  here, 
Peg,"  he  said  softly,  holding  open  the 
door  of  his  room.  "  I  want  to  tell  you 
something.      I  'm  down  on  mv  luck." 

"  What 's  the  matter  ?  "  asked  Wili- 
fred, with  some  interest,  but  by  no 
means  the  lively  concern  that  Peggy 
would    have   shown. 

"  I  Ve  been  suspended.  Fact,  Peg. 
A  pretty  how  do  you  do,  is  n't  it,  for 
a  fellow  that  can  hardly  pay  his  way  on 
a  straight  course  ?  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  suspended?  " 
asked  Wilifred. 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  181 

"  Why,  Peg  !  As  if  you  did  n't  know  ? 
Don't  you  remember  that  Lorton  was 
suspended  the  first  of  the  year  on  ac- 
count of  that  lark." 

"  O  Mr.  Bolander,"  exclaimed  Wili- 
fred,  brightening.  "  What  have  you 
been    up    to  ?  " 

Such  a  look  of  surprise  as  Bolander 
gave  her ! 

"  See  here,  child,"  he  broke  out 
sharply;  "that's  a  regular  give  away. 
I  suspected  you  yesterday,  and  now  I  'm 
certain.  At  my  tale  of  woe,  Peggy 
would  have  melted  in  sorrow.  Where 
is  Peggy  ?  " 

For  a  moment  Wilifred  was  silent ; 
but  she  knew  it  was  of  no  use  to  try 
and  deceive  this  sharp  young  man, 
whose  air  of  disapproval  stirred  her 
conscience  into  remorse  for  the  deceit 
she  had  practised. 


1 82      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  Peggy  is  at  Delhaven,  pretending 
to  be  me,"  she  finally  confessed.  "  I 
made  her  go,  though  she  did  n't  want 
to.  She  was  afraid,  you  know.  It  's 
all  my  fault." 

"  Well,  'pon  my  word,"  said  Bolander, 
,;  if  that  is  n't  a  scheme  !  Afraid  !  I 
believe  you.  She  must  be  scared  stiff 
by  this  time.     Poor  Peg  !  " 

"  Oh,  don't  you  think  she  is  enjoying 
it  ?  1  shall  be  cross  enough  if  she 
is  n't."  Wilifred  scowled  savagely  in  a 
mighty  effort  not  to  cry.  Her  plan 
seemed  to  be  turning  out  so  miserably, 
and  the  duplicity  of  it  seemed,  more  and 
more  appalling. 

By  adroit  questions  Bolander  was 
soon  in  possession  of  the  whole  story. 

"  Well,  I  see  you  meant  well,"  he  said 
at  length,  "  but  there  is  a  heap  of  harm 
done  by  people  who  mean  well.  I  sus- 
pect you  've  made  trouble  enough." 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  iS 


6 


"  Oh  !  "  cried  Wilifred,  "  I  shall  tell 
papa  everything.  He  is  so  good  I 
know  he  '11  forgive  me,  and  I  'm  sure 
he  11   let   me   help    Peggy." 

"  Well,  I  hope  he  will.  She  is  in  a 
bad  enough  fix  now,  poor  child." 

"  Do  you  think  Mrs.  Bagley  will  be 
very  angry  with  her  ?  " 

"  I  think,  metaphorically  speaking, 
my  dear,  she  will  take  her  blessed  little 
head  off." 

"  Oh  dear  !  "  said  Wilifred,  miserably, 
"  I  feel  as  if  I  was  a  horrid  Elizabeth, 
and  Peggy  poor  sweet  Mary,  Queen  of 
Squats.     Oh  dear  !  what  can  I  do  ?  " 

"  Do  you  think  Mrs.  Bagley  suspects 
anything  ?  "  asked  Bolander,  smiling  to 
himself  at  this  belittling  title  of  Scot- 
land's stately  Queen. 

"  No,  I  'm  sure  she  does  n't,"  an- 
swered   Wilifred,    "  but    she     is     awful 


184      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

angry  with  me,  —  that  is,  with  Peggy. 
You  see,  I  've  made  so  many  blunders 
this  morning,  and  I  broke  a  whole  lot 
of  her  dishes.  They  were  dreadfully 
ugly,  but  she  said  they  were  real  heir- 
looms, and  I  would  have  to  do  without 
any  more  clothes  until  she  had  saved 
up  enough  money  to  buy  some  others, 
—  that  is,  of  course,  not  really  I,  but 
Peggy.  And  if  they  cost  as  much  as 
she  says,  Peggy  will  have  to  wear  her 
old  clothes  until  she  's  grown  up.  But 
no,  I  'm  sure  papa  will  buy  Mrs.  Bagley 
some  more  heirlooms." 

"  At  the  heirloom  counter,  I  sup- 
pose,"  grinned    Bolander. 

"  Oh  don't  make  fun,"  pleaded  Wili- 
fred, "  but  tell  me  what  I  can  do." 

"  I  really  don't  know,"  said  Bolander. 
"  But  let  me  see,  —  yes,  this  will  be  the 
best  way.     At  four  o'clock   Mrs.  Bagley 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  185 

always  lets  Peggy  come  here  for  her 
lessons,  and  at  that  time  I  will  take  you 
home,  and  bring  Peggy  back." 

"  Oh  !  "  implored  Wilifred,  clasping 
Bolander's  arm,  "  you  won't  let  Mrs. 
Bagley  know  that  she  is  n't  I.  I  mean 
that  1  was  n't  she.  Oh,  you  know  what 
I  mean."' 

"  I  'm  not  going  to  aid  and  abet  you 
in  any  of  your  deceitful  practices,"  was 
the  severe  answer ;  but  Bolander  could 
not  forbear  a  reassuring  pat  on  Wili- 
f red's  head,  for  he  knew  her  fears  were 
all  for  Peggy,  and  he  shared  them.  "  I 
shall  try  to  propitiate  the  great  Bagley, 
and  persuade  her  to  make  Peg's  sen- 
tence light." 

Here  a  sharp  and  peremptory  call  for 
Peggy  forced  Wilifred  to  hurry  down- 
stairs. The  sharp  voice  proceeded  from 
the  room  off  the  "  settin'-room,"  which 


1 86      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

was  Mrs.  Bagley's  own,  in  which  she  was 
now  flying  about  in  a  frantic  endeavor 
to  don  her  robes  of  state. 

"  That 's  Mrs.  Brewer  at  the  door, 
Peg,"  she  called  out,  "  but  don't  go  yet. 
You  know  sence  the  bell 's  broke  we 
don't  hear  it  first  time  it 's  rung.  Lor', 
this  waist  aint  within  three  inches  of 
meetin'.  'T  is  a  wonder  how  I  can 
flesh  up  so,  slavin'  the  way  I  *do  in  the 
kitchen.  Well,  I  spose  I  '11  have  to 
throw  a  shawl  round  me,  an'  let  it  go  's 
it  is.  What  are  you  laughin'  at,  you 
impudent  thing  ?  Go  to  the  door  this 
minute  ;  don't  you  see  I  'm  all  dressed  ?  " 

Wilifred  opened  the  door,  not  to 
find  Mrs.  Brewer,  but  a  gentleman,  who 
looked  at  her  very  sharply,  she  thought, 
as  he  asked  for  Mrs.  Bagley. 

He  had  called  to  make  inquiries  about 
Peggy,  who,  he  said,  had  just  been  to 


For  Peggy 's  Sake.  187 

Professor  Whitby's  to  give  information 
concerning  Mr.  Bolander. 

"  Peggy  aint  been  out  of  the  house 
this  mornin',"  Mrs.  Bagley  assured 
him.  She  was  feeling  very  hot  in  the 
shawl,  and  very  cross,  because  of  her 
disappointment  about  Mrs.  Brewer. 
"  She  could  n't  have  gone  to  Professor 
Whitby's,  and  as  for  Mr.  Bolander  I 
don't  know  nothin'  of  the  trouble  he  s 
got  into  ;  but  I  do  say  no  respectable 
young  man  lodger  would  get  suspended 
right  in  the  middle  of  the  year*  an'  leave 
my  room  vacant." 

Mrs.  Bagley  did  not  see  fit  to  inform 
WTilifred,  or  rather  Peggy,  of  the  object 
of  this  call.  She  was  afraid  the  child 
might  get  an  idea  by  it  that  she  was  a 
person   of  importance. 

The  gentleman  had  hardly  gone  when 
the   door-bell   was  again   rung,  and  this 


1 88      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

time  Wilifred  was  sent  immediately  to 
answer  it. 

Imagine  her  surprise  at  seeing  Dr, 
Moran,  who  smiled,  and  said  pleasantly, 
"  Is  Mrs.  Bagley  at  home  ? " 

In  her  pleasure  in  seeing  him  she  for- 
got Peggy,  and  looked  up  in  his  face 
and  laughed ;  and  if  his  eyes  had  not 
been  fastened  upon  the  advancing  fig- 
ure of  Mrs.  Bagley  he  would  certainly 
have  discovered  that  this  merry  child 
was  Wilifred,  instead  of  the  shy,  mel- 
ancholy little  creature  he  had  left  at 
home. 

Before  she  could  obey  the  impulse 
that  urged  her  to  fling  herself  into  his 
arms  Mrs.  Bagley  came  forward,  and, 
motioning  her  to  go  down  stairs  again, 
led  the  Doctor  into  the  parlor. 

Wilifred  ran  off,  feel i nor  that  after  all 
she  was  very  glad  she  had  not  betrayed 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  189 

herself,  and  spoiled  Mr.  Bolander's  plan 
for  helping  Peggy.  At  four  o'clock,  as 
far  as  she  was  concerned,  everything 
would  be  over,  and  how  she  would 
laugh  at  her  papa  for  not  knowing 
her. 

Mrs.  Bagley  had  a  long  interview 
with  Dr.  Moran.  When  it  was  over 
she  came  down  into  the  kitchen  where 
Wilifred  was,  and  informed  her  that  he 
was  a  perfect  gentleman.  Her  face  was 
wreathed  in  smiles.  She  was  abso- 
lutely pleasant. 

"Just  think  of  it,  Peggy,  my  dear,  he 
insists  upon  sending  you  to  boarding 
school,  and  he  has  fixed  things  up  real 
comfortable  for  me  while  your 're  gone. 
I  'm  going  to  have  Ann  Sarah  Martin 
here  to  help  me  with  the  work." 

"  How  soon  am  I  going  ?  "  asked 
Wilifred. 


190      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

"  This  afternoon.  He  'pears  to  be  in 
a  terrible  hurry  and  can't  wait.  He 
says  he  has  made  arrangements  for  you 
at  the  boarding  school,  and  will  tele- 
graph 'em  when  to  expect  us.  Well, 
I  shall  have  to  fly  round  some  to  get 
ready." 

"  But  I  have  n't  any  clothes  !  "  pro- 
tested Wilifred,  thinking  of  the  very 
limited  stock  she  had  examined  in  Peg- 
gy's room.  "  You  can't  go  to  boarding 
school  without  clothes." 

"  There  's  gratitude  for  you  !  "  ex- 
claimed Mrs.  Bagley,  sitting  down  with 
a  gasp,  and  addressing  the  flies  on  the 
ceiling.  "  No  clothes  !  An'  this  is  the 
child  I  took  an'  brought  up  decent, 
when  she  had  n't  a  friend  of  her  own,  — 
fed  her  with  food  from  my  own  table, 
with  two  helps  more  often  than  not,  an' 
a  raging,  tearing  appetite  for  everything 


"I'M    NOT    PEGGY.       YOU    MUSTN'T    TAKE    ME    TO    BOARDING 
SCHOOL.1' 


192      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

that 's  costly.  No  clothes  !  An'  I  Ve 
taken  'em  off  my  back  and  given  'em 
to  her/' 

The  stroke  of  the  clock  here  brought 
a  realizing  sense  of  the  value  of  time, 
and  Mrs.  Bagley  jumped  to  her  feet 
crying,  — 

"  Mercy  !  the  train  starts  at  four,  an' 
here  it  is  twelve.  I  must  go  right  to 
work ;  but  if  I  get  through  so  's  to  have 
the  time  for  it,  if  I  won't  shake  the 
pride  out  of  you.  You  've  had  a  heap 
more  clothes  than  ever  you  deserved. 
However,  Dr.  Moran  has  promised  to 
send  me  a  box  of  things  for  you ;  but 
if  he  knew  what  an  ungrateful  thing 
you  are,  he  'd  keep  'em  at  home." 

"  Mrs.  Bagley,"  broke  out  poor  Wili- 
fred, "  I  'm  not  Peggy.  You  must  n't 
take  me  to  boarding  school." 

"  You  are  not  Peggy !  Lor'  me ! 
Who  are  you  ?     Queen  Victoria  ?  " 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  193 

"  I  'm  Wilifred  Moran.  Peggy  and  I 
have  exchanged  places." 

"  Exchanged  fiddlesticks  !  "  was  the 
contemptuous  reply.  "  I  'm  in  too  much 
of  a  hurry  for  nonsense.  Now  fly 
round  and  get  them  potatoes  pared  for 
dinner." 

"  Oh,  but  I  can't  stop  !  I  'm  going 
home  and  will  send  Peggy  right  back 
to  help  you.  I  think  she  will  be  glad 
to  go  to  boarding  school." 

Wilifrid's  private  thought  was  that 
there  could  be  no  mode  of  life  more 
disagreeable  than  this  as  Mrs.  Bagley's 
servant,  but  she  prudently  kept  this  be- 
lief to  herself. 

Mrs.  Bagley,  who  was  now  clattering 
about  in  a  hasty  effort  to  put  her 
kitchen  in  order,  paid  no  attention  to 
Wilifred's  speech. 

"  Get  to  work,  Peg ;  get  to  work," 
13 


194      "The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

she  cried,  raising  her  voice  above  the 
clatter  of  the  kettles  and  pans.  "  We  Ve 
got  to  be  off  by  four,  and  there  's  no 
time  to  lose." 

It  was  distressingly  evident  that  she 
did  not  give  a  second  thought  to  the 
little  girl's  story,  and  for  the  first  time 
Wilifred  was  frightened.  Not  very 
much  frightened,  for  she  was  sure  she 
could  presently  set  matters  straight,  but 
frightened  enough  to  make  her  tone 
very  serious  as  she  cried,  "  Oh !  if  I 
could  only  see  papa!" 

"  Papa !  "  repeated  Mrs.  Bagley.  "  Of 
all  simpletons !  But  I  see  what  you 
are  doing,  —  pretending  you  are  that 
child  of  Dr.  Moran's.  I  done  such 
things  myself  when  I  was  a  young 
one,  but  I  took  care  to  keep  it  to  my- 
self. You  opened  the  door  for  your 
papa,  —  queer  he  did  n't  know  you, 
aint  it  ?  " 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  195 

"  Oh,  he  has  got  mixed  up,"  Will 
cried,  eagerly.  "  I  must  go  and  explain 
to  him." 

"  Folks  don't  have  to  explain  to  their 
own  father  whose  clfild  they  are.  Now 
quit  this  nonsense,  Peg,  and  go  to  work. 
Mr.  Fullerton  says  you  aint  to  be 
trusted,  an'   I  believe  him." 

Wilifred  now  realized  the  uselessness 
of  talking  to  Mrs.  Bagley,  but  what  was 
she  to  do  ?  Time  was  precious.  The 
moments  that  should  be  employed  in 
finding  Peggy  were  slipping  away.  She 
could  not  wait  for  Mr.  Bolander. 

The  entry  door  was  wide  open,  and 
as  the  little  girl  looked  anxiously  out 
into  the  sunshine,  she  resolved  to  waste 
no  more  words.  She  ran  out  and  flew 
like  an  arrow  along  the  street,  laughing 
at  Mrs.  Bagley,  who  was  panting  behind 
her. 


196      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

Escape  seemed  easy  until  Maloney, 
being  called,  joined  in  the  pursuit.  It 
was  nothing  for  him  to  overtake  a  nine- 
year-old  girl,  and  poor  Wilifred  was 
soon  marched  back  to  the  kitchen. 
Here  she  was  watched  too  closely  to 
escape  again,  and  was  made  to  go  on 
with  Peggy's  tasks. 

Her  first  thought  was  of  Mr.  Bo- 
lander.  If  she  could  see  him,  he  would 
convince  Mrs.  Bagley  that  what  she 
said  was  true  ;  but  she  begged  in  vain 
to  be  allowed  to  call  him. 

Mrs.  Bagley  declared  that  she  was 
already  "  all  of  a  tremble,"  and  she 
would  have  no  more  scenes.  She  was 
afraid,  although  she  did  not  say  this  to 
Wilifred,  that,  if  things  did  not  go 
smoothly,  the  arrangement  she  had 
made  with  Dr.  Moran,  and  which  was 
very  much  to  her  own  advantage,  would 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  197 

fall  through,  and  she  was  now  just  as 
anxious  as  he  was  that  Peggy  should 
go  to  school. 

The  Doctor's  coachman  brought  the 
promised  box,  the  contents  of  which 
Wilifred  recognized  as  some  of  her  own 
clothes  which  had  been  cast  aside. 
How  well  she  remembered  the  day 
Estelle  had  folded  them  up,  with  the 
remark  that  some  poor  child  would  be 
glad  enough  to  get  them ! 

Mrs.  Bagley  showed  them  to  her, 
thinking  she  would  no  doubt  be  pleased 
and  grateful.  It  must  be  an  odd  feel- 
ing to  receive  one's  own  cast-off  cloth- 
ing as  a  gift,  and  Wilifred  did  not  know 
whether  to  laugh  or  cry ;  but  in  spite 
of  her  protestations  it  was  packed  up 
in  a  little  black  trunk  with  some  of  the 
best  of  Peo-ory's  clothing. 

Time  flew  like  a  bird.     One  o'clock 


198      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

struck,  —  two  —  three.  At  half  past 
three  Wilifred  had  been  dressed  and 
locked  up  in  the  parlor  for  safe  keeping 
until  the  carriage  came,  which  would  be 
at  a  quarter  before  four. 

In  a  fever  of  excitement  she  watched 
by  the  window  for  the  return  of  Mr. 
Bolander,  who  had  been  out  of  the 
house  since  dinner ;  for  on  Mr.  Bolan- 
der all  her  hopes   now  hung. 

The  clock  on  the  mantle  shelf,  un- 
mindful of  her  agony,  ticked  away  those 
last  moments.  Five  of  them  had  al- 
ready gone ;  five  more  flew  by.  With 
beating  heart  poor  Wilifred  searched 
the  street  for  the  figure  of  Mr.  Bolan- 
der, which,  alas!  was  nowhere  visible. 

The  only  person  in  sight  was  Maloney, 
who,  as  Mrs.  Bagley  opened  the  parlor 
door,  came   up  the  front  steps. 

"  There   bes    a  fair  prospect   of    bad 


For  Peggy  s  Sake.  199 

weather,  mum,"  he  said,  following  her 
in.  "  Did  ye  moind  the  big  cloud  in 
the  wist?  An'  will  ye  be  goin'  rain  or 
shine,  Mis  Bagley  ?  " 

Wilifred  waited  breathless  for  the 
answer. 

"  Lor',  what  should  I  care  for  a 
shower  ?  We  '11  be  as  safe  and  as  dry 
in  the  cars  as  anywhere  else.  Come, 
Peggy,  be  quick.     Here  's  the  carriage." 


200      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 


CHAPTER    X. 

ALL  'S    WELL    THAT    ENDS    WELL. 

IT  was  a  terrible  night,  and  Peggy 
had  wandered  sadly,  from  window 
to  window,  where  the  rain  was  smiting 
the  panes  in  furious  gusts.  The  family 
were  all  together  in  the  library  where 
they  had  been  watching  the  thunder- 
storms, as  one  after  another  gathered 
and  burst.  The  wind  swayed  the  tall 
pines  and  tossed  the  lighter  foliage  of 
the  elms,  while  the  woodbine  along  the 
piazza  was  whipped  into  strings. 

Another  storm  was  now  coming,  and 
as  Peggy  listened  to  the  thunder  and 
watched    the    lightning    as    it    played 


All's   Well  that  Ends    Well.     201 

across  the  sky,  she  thought  it  an  ex- 
cuse for  a  further  delay  in  speaking  the 
words  that  had  been  all  the  evening 
on  her  lips.  For  she  had  at  length  re- 
solved that  she  would  bear  this  life  of 
deceit  no  longer. 

From  time  to  time  she  glanced  at 
Mrs.  Moran,  her  eyes  filled  with  wistful 
love,  and  her  heart  with  a  dread  of  the 
lonesome,  loveless  life  at  Mrs.  Baglev's. 
As  for  the  Doctor,  poor  Peggy  dared 
not  look  at  him  at  all.  What  would 
he  say,  she  wondered,  when  he  knew 
how  he  had  been  deceived  ?  She  had 
no  doubt  that  he  would  instantly  send 
her  out  of  the  house,  and  she  would 
have  to  go  home  with  the  thunder 
crashing  over  her  head  and  the  light- 
ning blinding  her  eyes.  Then  came  the 
thought  that  perhaps  Mrs  Bagley  would 
be  too  angry  with  her  to  take   her  back 


202      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

in  the  old  place,  and  then  what  would 
become  of  her? 

So  the  evening  wore  away,  until  at 
last  the  boys  went  up-stairs  to  their 
gymnastics,  and  Mrs.  Moran  folded  up 
her  work,  and  Peggy,  knowing  that  she 
could  delay  no  longer,  cleared  her  ach- 
ing throat,  and  beo;an,  "  Dr.  Moran  —  " 

But  a  sudden  clap  of  thunder  drowned 
her  voice,  and  the  Doctor  got  up,  and, 
looking  out  of  the  window,  cried,  "  That 
struck  near.  'T  is  a  terrible  night.  I 
pity  the  poor  wretches  that  have  to  be 
out  in  it." 

"  Then  you  must  pity  me,"  suddenly 
sobbed  the  poor  child. 

She  fell  down  at  Mrs.  Moran's  side, 
and  hid  her  face  in  her  lap.  She  was 
trembling  from  head  to  foot,  and  her 
voice  shook  with  tears.  Mrs.  Moran 
held  her   close,  while  the   Doctor,  with 


SHE    FELL   DOWN    AT    MRS.    MORAX's    SIDE,    AND    HID    HER    FACE 
IX    HER    LAP. 


204      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

an  anxious  face,  stooped  down  beside 
her. 

"  What  ails  the  child  ?  Wilifred,  my 
darling,  what  is  it  ?  "  he  cried. 

"  Oh,  I  'm  not  Wilifred,"  Peggy  whis- 
pered, in  her  piteous  little  voice,  and 
cowering  away  from  him.  "  I  'm  Wili- 
fred's  sister,  and  only  Peggy.  Oh,  don't 
be  angry  !  don't  be  angry  !  " 

"  She  is  delirious.  I  will  take  her 
up-stairs,  and  she  must  be  put  immedi- 
ately to  bed,"  said  the  Doctor  gravely. 
And  he  would  have  lifted  her  up,  only 
at  just  that  moment  there  was  a  sound 
of  li^ht,  hurrvino-  little  feet  in  the  hall, 
and  in  from  the  rain  and  the  dark  night, 
wide-eyed  and  pale,  came  Wilifred  her- 
self, crying,  in  her  own  sweet,  confident 
tone,  "  O  papa !  papa  !  I  have  come  to 
you  at  last.  You  nearly  sent  me  to 
boarding  school  instead  of  Peggy." 


All's   Well  that  Ends   Well     205 

No  one  could  doubt  which  of  the  two 
children  was  the  true  Wilifred,  for  it 
was  easy  enough  to  detect  the  differ- 
ence between  this  bright,  buoyant 
child,  and  the  sad-eyed,  shrinking  lit- 
tle thing  who  had  been  with  them  in 
her  place. 

The  Doctor  sprang  forward  and 
caught  her  in  his  arms,  finding  with 
thankfulness  that  she  at  least  did  not 
shrink  from  his  kisses. 

"Papa,  O  papa!"  Wilifred  went  on, 
"  I  have  had  such  a  fearful  time.  I 
thought  I  should  never  get  back  to  you 
and  mamma  again,  for  Mrs.  Bagley 
would  n't  believe  what  I  told  her.  I 
deserved  it  all  because  I  had  deceived 
you ;  though  I  did  n't  mean  to  deceive 
you,  but  only  to  do  something  for  poor, 
poor  Peggy." 

Unnoticed  in  the  surprise  Wilifred's 


206      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

arrival  had  caused,  Peggy  had  crept 
aside,  and  now  stood  watching  them 
with  her  great,  mournful  eyes. 

Wilifred,  now  turning  in  the  Doctor's 
arms,  held  out  her  hands  to  her,  cry- 
ing, "O  Peggy!  dear  Peggy!  I'm  so 
sorry,  but  I  've  made  everything  harder 
for  you.  Mrs.  Bagley  is  angry,  oh ! 
dreadfully  angry,  and  I  don't  know 
what    she    will    do    to    you." 

"  I  knew  she  'd  be  roused,"  murmured 
Peggy ;  "  but  no  matter,  I  'm  not  afraid, 
—  not  so  very  much  afraid."  But  her 
teeth  chattered,  and  she  trembled  vio- 
lently. Presently  she  closed  her  eyes, 
and  for  a  moment  everything  was  dark ; 
and  then  suddenly  she  realized  that  she 
was  in  Mrs.  Moran's  arms,  that  Wili- 
fred was  holding  her  hand,  and,  stran- 
ger than  all,  the  Doctor  looking  down 
kindly  upon  her  with  no  displeasure  at 


All's   Well  that  Ends   Well.     207 

all  in  his  face.  For  the  first  time,  her 
heart  free  at  last  of  its  burden,  and  en- 
couraged by  his  glance,  she  looked  up 
and  smiled  at  him.  "  I  ought  not  to 
have  come  here,  I  know,"  she  said,  "  but 
I  will  go  back  now." 

"  No,  you  sha'n't  go  back,  Peggy," 
cried  Wilifred,  in  generous  pity. 

She  put  her  arms  in  a  sweet  protect- 
ing way  around  her  sister,  and  looked 
up  pleadingly  at  the   Doctor. 

"  Papa  will  adopt  you  instead  of  me. 
Oh,  yes,  papa,  keep  Peggy.  She  is 
better  than  I.  She  is  gentle  and  good. 
I  won't  be  selfish,  but  go  back  to  Mrs. 
Bagley.  Yes,  Mr.  Bolander  will  take 
me  back  again  instead  of  you,  Peggy." 

"  Nonsense,  you  shall  neither  of  you 
go  back  there,"  cried  a  voice  that  Peggy 
with  much  wonder  recognized  as  the 
voice  of   Mr.   Bolander  ;  for  she  did  not 


2o8      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

know  that  he  had  come  in  just  after 
Wilifred. 

"  I  have  a  plan  for  Peggy,"  he  said, 
turning  to  Dr.  Moran,  and  mopping  his 
forehead,  for  he  had  been  much  over- 
come at  Peggy's  faintness.  "  I  mean  to 
take  her  to  my  grandmother,  who  lives 
on  a  farm,  and  will  at  least  be  kind  to 
her.  I  shall  manage  to  take  care  of 
the  child  somehow,  for  she  sha'n't  go 
back  to  Mrs.  Bagley." 

"  Well,  she  is  n't  fit  to  go  anywhere 
to-night,"  said  the  Doctor  composedly. 

He  took  Wilifred  on  one  knee,  and 
pulled  Peggy  upon  the  other,  saying,  as 
he  kissed  first  one  child's  cheek  and  then 
the  other's,  "  It 's  rather  a  pity,  Mr.  Bo- 
lander,  to  separate  twin  sisters.  I  told 
Mrs.  Moran  that  when  this  pair  were 
babies :  I  really  have  n't  the  heart  to 
do  it  again." 


All  s    Well  that  Ends    Well      209 

"  We  will  never  separate  them,"  cried 
Mrs.  Moran,  getting  up,  and  hovering 
over  the  children  like  a  sweet,  maternal 
dove  in  a  crocheted  shawl.  "  I  could 
not  bear  now  to  give  up  little  Peggy." 

"  All  's  well  that  ends  well,"  it  is  said, 
and  what  ending  could  be  better  than 
this  ?  Peggy  almost  cried  for  joy,  and 
Wilifred  clapped  her  hands,  shouting, 
"  'T  is  a  better  plan  than  mine.  I  never 
thought  of  anything  half  as  good." 

Then  together  the  children  told  what 
had  taken  place  between  them  on  the 
day  they  had  gathered  the  violets. 

"  And  to  think,  papa,"  said  Wilifred,  at 
length,  "  that  you  never  knew  me  when 
I  opened  the  door  for  you  at  the  Bagleys'. 
But  't  was  lucky  I  could  n't  cheat  Mr. 
Bolander,  for  if  I  had,  I  should  have 
been  whirled  off  to  boarding  school. 
Oh,  how  glad   I  was  when,  just  at  the 


210      The  Little  Sister  of  Wilifred. 

last  moment,  as  they  were  putting  me 
into  the  carriage,  he  came  running  up, 
crying, '  You  have  the  wrong  child  there, 
Mrs.  Bagley.  Hold  on,  Maloney,  or  I  '11 
have  you  up  for  kidnapping.'  And 
Mrs.  Bagley  scolded,  and  I  screamed, 
and  then  there  was  that  awful  clap 
of  thunder,  and  the  rain  came  down. 
That 's  why  we  were  so  long  coming 
here." 

Peggy  at  once  became  Margaret 
Moran,  and  was  as  dearly  loved  as  her 
sister.  In  her  sweet  and  thoughtful 
way,  she  always  showed  a  deep  affection 
for  both  parents,  but  in  particular  de- 
voted herself  to  her  adopted  mother,  as 
Wilifred  did  to  the  Doctor. 

With  her  help  the  cloud  over  Bolan- 
der  was  dispelled.  He  was  soon  on 
intimate  terms  with  the  Morans,  and 
many  of  the  pleasures  that  came  into 
his  life  were  due  to  grateful  Peggy. 


All's   Well  that  Ends   Well.     211 

She  became  a  great  student,  and 
made  so  much  of  her  advantages,  that 
when,  many  years  later,  she  graduated 
from  college,  Bolander,  now  a  famous 
physician,  declared  that  she  knew  so 
much  he  was  actually  afraid  of  her. 

The  likeness  between  the  sisters  grew 
stronger  each  year.  In  an  atmosphere 
of  love  and  sympathy,  Peggy  conquered 
her  timidity,  and,  as  she  grew  strong 
and  healthy,  wore  the  blooming  radi- 
ance so  natural  to  Wilifred,  who  in  turn 
caught  the  graces  of  patience  and  gen- 
tleness from  her  sweet  twin  sister. 


THE    END. 


Roberts  Brothers  Juvenile  Books. 

Dear  Daughter  Dorothy. 

BY  MISS  A.   G.   PLY  MPT  ON. 

With  seven   illustrations  by  the  author.     Small  4to.     Cloth. 

PRICE,    $1.00. 


-■■""  ■         « 

DEAR  DAUGHTER  DOROTHY. 

"  T\\p  child  is  father  of  the  man,"  — so  Wordsworth  sang  ;  and  here  is  a  j^Uy 
story  of  a  little  girl  who  was  her  father's  mother  in  a  very  real  way.  There  were 
hard  lines  for  him  ;  and  she  was  fruitful  of  devices  to  help  him  along,  even  hav- 
ing an  auction  of  the  pretty  things  that  had  been  given  her  from  time  to  time,  and 
realizing  a  neat  little  sum.  Then  her  father  was  accused  of  peculation ;  and  she, 
sweetly  ignorant  of  the  ways'  of  justice,  went  to  the  judge  and  labored  with  him, 
to  no  effect,  though  he  was  wondrous  kind.  Then  in  court  she  gave  just  the 
wrong  evidence,  because  it  showed  how  poor  her  father  was,  and  so  established  a 
presumption  of  his  great  necessity  and  desperation.  But  the  Detis  ex  machhia 
—  the  wicked  partner  —  arrived  at  the  right  moment,  and  owned  up,  and  the  good 
father  was  cleared,  and  little  Daughter  Dorothy  was  made  gLd.  But  this  meagre 
summary  gives  but  a  poor  idea  of  the  ins  and  outs  of  this  charming  story,  and  no 
idea  of  the  happy  way  in  which  it  is  told.  —  Christian  Register. 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,    Boston. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothc'7's'  Publications. 


By  the  author  of  "Dear  Daughier  Dorothy." 


BETTY,  A  BUTTERFLY. 

By  A.  G.  PLYMPTON. 

With,    illustrations    by  the    author. 

Square  12mo.    Cloth.    Price,  $1.00. 


"  AM    I   NOT  FINE  ?  " 


Sold   by    all    Booksellers.      Mailed   by    the    Publishers    on 
receipt  of  the  price. 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,  Boston. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


A  LOST   HERO. 


By  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  Ward  and  Her- 
bert D.  Ward.  With  30  illustrations  by  Frank 
T.  Merrill.     Small  quarto.     Cloth.     Price,  $1.50. 


The  lost  hero  was  a  poor  old  negro  who  saved  the  Columbia 
express  from  destruction  at  the  time  of  the  Charleston  earthquake, 
and  vanished  from  human  ken  after  his  brave  deed  was  accom- 
plished, swallowed  up,  probably,  in  some  yawning  crevice  of  the 
envious  earth.  The  story  is  written  with  that  simplicity  which  is 
the  perfection  of  art,  and  its  subtle  pathos  is  given  full  and  elo- 
quent expression.  But  noble  as  the  book  is,  viewed  as  a  literary 
performance,  it  owes  not  a  little  of  its  peculiar  attractiveness  to 
the  illustrations  with  which  it  is  now  adorned  after  drawings  by 
Frank  T.  Merrill.  —  The  Beacon. 


ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

BOSTON.   MASS. 


Jolly  Good  Times  at  Hackmatack. 


"  There,"'  said  Miss  Patty,  "  that 's  a  surtout  as  is  a  surtout." 
Page  259. 

By   MARY   P.    W.   SMITH, 

Author  of  "  Jolly  Good  Times ;  or.  Child-Life  on  a  Farm,"  "  Jolly  Good  Times  at 
School,"  "Their  Canoe  Trip," -The  Browns/'  With  illustrations.  i6mo.  Cloth. 
Price,  $1.25. 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers,  Boston. 


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